President Macron, African art and the question of restitution

The French President last year pledged to repatriate African pieces in his country’s public museums. What repercussions could this policy have?

By Gareth Harris

"Yves-Bernard Debie, a Brussels-based lawyer specialising in cultural property and trade, believes that Macron’s proposal — considered by some as a masterstroke of cultural diplomacy — is ill- founded. “By anchoring the question of sharing world cultural property in the context of ‘restitution’, President Macron has sparked a fire that he will have a great deal of trouble extinguishing,” he says."

“To restitute means to return something to its legitimate owner. As a result of this reasoning, France would be regarded as unlawfully keeping museum collections and works acquired during colonisation,” Debie continues, adding that this could lead to a flood of claims from former colonies. “No one can predict what will now happen to French museum collections.”