French parliament gave the restitution bill its final approval today
France will return 27 colonial-era artefacts in museums to Benin and Senegal within one year, following a unanimous vote by the National Assembly on 17 December. Overriding late opposition from the Senate, the National Assembly gave its final approval to a restitution bill transferring ownership of 26 plundered royal artefacts from the Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac to the Republic of Benin and a sword from the Army Museum to Senegal.
In a preliminary address to the house, French culture minister Roselyne Bachelot hailed a bill that “marks the culmination of a long process” and “embodies a new ambition in our cultural relations with the African continent”. On a visit to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in November 2017, President Emmanuel Macron made a landmark pledge to return African heritage to Africa. But the process of restitution has been obstructed by France’s heritage code, which considers museum collections “inalienable”. New laws are therefore required to remove individual objects before they can return to their countries of origin.