Looted African works that France has promised to return to Benin will be shown in Paris museum for one last time theartnewspaper.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from theartnewspaper.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Artefacts stolen from Africa must be returned
Just under 100,000 African artefacts remain in France
FRENCH CULTURE minister Roselyne Bachelot has stated that the decision to return colonial-era artefacts will ‘allow the Beninese and Senegalese peoples to reconnect more directly with their past’ but it must not be seen as a ‘legal precedent’.
France supports the initiatives of these two countries in favour of heritage, well beyond just restitution
French Culture minister Roselyne Bachelot
Following a unanimous vote France will return 27 artefacts in museums to Benin and Senegal within one year.
The decison comes three years after President Emmanuel Macron’s pledge to return African artefacts housed in French institutions to their country of origin.
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 cons