The French government has begun the process of taking legal steps to repatriate colonial-era artefacts. Holdings in French national museums are currently classed as ‘inalienable’ under law and prevented from deaccessioning. The new law under review, yet to be passed by parliament, would suspend this status for a specific period of time to allow for the repatriation of 26 objects to former colony Benin and a historic sword to Senegal.
The draft law ‘corresponds to a very strong commitment made by the president of the Republic so that African youth have the opportunity to access their heritage and their history in Africa’, a government spokesperson said.
In 2017, president Emmanual Macron pledged that the restitution of African cultural objects was a ’top priority’. A 2018 report commissioned by Macron by the French historian Bénédicte Savoy and Senegalese writer and economist Felwine Sarr found that around 90,000 African artworks were being held in French museum collections, with most in the Musée du quai Branly in Paris. The report recommended that such objects be returned to their countries of origin on a permanent basis, rather than long-term loan.
Following the report, Macron agreed to return certain artefacts taken from Benin. The Musée du quai Branly holds 26 statues from the palace of Abomey in 1892 – taken by the French as spoils of war during a colonial conflict in the then Kingdom of Dahomey – which will be repatriated under the new legislation.
