On Wednesday, the French government submitted a new law that would accelerate the restitution of looted artefacts. The law will be examined by parliament on 24 September.
During a speech in Burkina Faso in 2017, president Emmanuel Macron announced that he wanted to put in place the conditions for ‘temporary or permanent returns of African heritage to Africa.’ He then commissioned a report, written by Senegalese academic Felwine Sarr and French art historian Bénédicte Savoy (published in 2018), to examine the history and current situation of cultural objects from Sub-Saharan Africa that entered French public collections during colonial rule. The report advocated for the unconditional restitution of African cultural heritage held in French institutions. Since then, only 27 objects have been returned to their country of origin.
The principle of ‘inalienability’, inscribed in the French constitution, currently prevents the deaccessioning of objects held in public collections. The new law submitted on Wednesday would create an exception to ‘inalienability’ by allowing artefacts obtained illicitly between 1815 and 1972 to be returned by government decree, without a vote in parliament. For items to be considered, the competent authority of the concerned foreign state will have to submit a formal restitution request to be reviewed by a bilateral scientific committee composed of French and foreign experts.
