Colonial restitutions: what the bill says, which aims to facilitate the return of looted cultural property to the countries of origin

Presented to the Council of Ministers, it plans to facilitate the removal of works from French collections by derogating from the principle of their inalienability without going through a tedious legislative process.

Applying primarily to African countries but with "universal geographical scope" , it aims to accelerate the return of cultural property claimed by "States which, due to illicit appropriation, were deprived of it " between 1815 and 1972, according to the Ministry of Culture.

This concerns cultural property acquired "in a situation of theft, looting, transfer or donation obtained by constraint or violence or from a person who could not dispose of it" , he specified.

The text, the fulfillment of a promise made by President Emmanuel Macron in Ouagadougou in 2017, is expected to be presented to the Senate in September.

It provides that instead of a specific law for each work or object, only a decree of the Council of State and documented proof of its illicit appropriation are sufficient.

A bilateral commission bringing together French experts and historians and those from the requesting state will be responsible for this work, if necessary, according to the ministry.

Concerning the historical period chosen, 1815 corresponds to the date of a settlement of the Napoleonic conquests which is due to a first movement of restitution of works on a European scale. 1972 is that of the entry into force of the international UNESCO convention protecting cultural property against illicit trafficking.

"Lagging behind"

While thousands of pieces have already been returned to Africa from around the world, France is "lagging behind" , according to researcher and anthropologist Saskia Cousin, a specialist in the issue.

So far, Paris has returned only 26 objects from the royal treasury of Abomey to Benin in 2021, as well as the talking drum Djidji Ayôkwé this year to Côte d'Ivoire.

A saber, believed to have belonged to the warlord El Hadj Oumar Tall, was also returned to Senegal in 2019, but doubts remain as to the identity of its owner, according to some sources.

Around ten other requests were officially made to him, "some very general, for which the Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, asked for a narrowing of the scope, as for Ethiopia which a few years ago requested all the works contained in the national collections" , indicated the ministry.

Algeria, for its part, is demanding the personal effects of Emir Abdel Kader and Mali is demanding the return of coins from the Ségou treasure which were seized during military operations linked to the colonial conquest.

Benin also wants France to consider other requests after the 26 objects already returned, he explained.

The Ministry's experts are engaged in research work.

Acquired during the colonial period often by force or coercion, but not always, a large part of the 72,000 African objects in the Quai Branly Museum in Paris are also the subject of long-term work on their provenance with a view to possible restitution.

A number of scientific projects are also being carried out at the Musée de l'Homme, according to the ministry.

"Repair"

The framework bill concentrates "the bulk of expectations" , recently agreed Rachida Dati, who had been forced to withdraw a first text from the parliamentary agenda.

It was deemed insufficiently motivated by the Council of State and attacked by senators who denounced a "forced march examination" .

The new text pursues an objective of "reappropriation" , by the requesting States, "of fundamental elements of their heritage" , as well as a "material and symbolic repair of the link which unites the States concerned to their heritage and their memory" , the ministry stressed.

This is the third and final stage of a legislative initiative aimed at facilitating the release of works from the public domain.

In 2023, France adopted two additional framework laws: the first facilitates the restitution of property looted by the Nazis. The second concerns the restitution of human remains. It has found its first application with the restitution of three skulls to Madagascar, which is expected to be made official at the end of August.