France unanimously passes bill to return colonial-era looted art

France Passes Bill to Return Colonial-Era Looted Artworks

France’s National Assembly on Monday unanimously approved a bill to streamline the return of cultural artefacts looted during the colonial era, advancing a promise President Emmanuel Macron first made nearly nine years ago. The vote, 170 in favor with zero opposed and one abstention, now sends the legislation to a joint committee to reconcile differences with the Senate version passed unanimously in January.tf1info

A Framework to Replace Piecemeal Returns

The bill targets objects acquired between June 1815 and April 1972 — the period spanning the start of France’s second colonial empire and the entry into force of a UNESCO convention governing the return of cultural property in international law. Under current French rules, every item in the national collection must receive a separate parliamentary vote before it can be returned, a requirement that has slowed restitution to a trickle. The new framework would allow the government to proceed by decree instead.townandcountrymag

Requests would pass through two bodies: a scientific committee formed in consultation with the requesting state, and a restitution commission including representatives of national museums, the government, and parliament. Culture Minister Catherine Pégard told lawmakers that the law provides “a clear framework to organize future restitutions,” while insisting that “nothing could compel the French state to give a positive response to unfounded requests that would put our collections at risk”.lemonde

Decades of Delay

France still holds tens of thousands of artefacts taken from its former colonial empire. Macron pledged in a 2017 speech at the University of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso that “within five years, the conditions will be met for the temporary or permanent restitution of African heritage to Africa”. Progress since then has been slow: France returned a 19th-century sabre to Senegal, 26 items to Benin, and the crown of Madagascar’s last queen on loan, but broader legislation stalled amid political upheaval, including snap elections in 2024.lemonde

What Comes Next

The bill must now go through a joint Senate-Assembly committee before final adoption. Restitution requests are already pending from Algeria, which seeks the personal effects of rebel leader Abdel Kader; Benin, which wants a statue of the Vodun god Gou; Ivory Coast, which has requested some 150 objects; Madagascar; and Mali, which seeks items taken during the 1931 Dakar-Djibouti ethnographic expedition.tf1info