Cultural Restitution
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Updated April 2025
Below is a schedule of successful restitutions made by France to a country or community of source, together with other restitution news. Entries are updated regularly.
April 2025
In the first repatriation under a new French law governing human remains, the skulls of King Toera and two warriors will be returned to Madagascar
December 2024
The return of three ancient artefacts to Ethiopia by the French embassy in Addis Ababa is described as a diplomatic handover not an act of restitution
November 2024
While legal authority to repatriate the Ayokwe djidji (known as the 'Talking drum') to Cote d'Ivoire remains out of reach, the French government has signed an agreement to loan the drum to Cote d'Ivoire
April 2024
France faces a "titanic and exhilarating" task trying to identify which of the c. 90,000 African artworks in French museums were plundered during colonial rule
March 2024
Madagascar is asking for the return of three human skulls belonging to the Sakalaves, including the skull of King Toera, plundered at the end of the 19th cent during French colonial rule
February 2024
A commission of French and Algerian historians, set up in August 2022, has agreed proposals for the exchange of archives, remains and artefacts to help turn the page on a shared and painful past
February 2024
French-Senegalese film-maker launching her film Dahomey at the Berlin film festival describes the restitution of 26 works out of 7,000 as an insult
December 2023
France agrees to return human remains less than 500 years old from public collections following years of wrangling - but not cases involving remains of people from French territories around the world
October 2023
France's culture minister has signed an agreement with her counterpart in Germany to set up a joint provenance research fund focussing on museum objects from sub-Saharan Africa
May 2023
A critical review of the Martinez report on France's Shared Heritage suggests it is clearly aimed at restraining African artefacts from leaving French museums
May 2023
The Republic of Benin prepares for the return of 26 royal treasures from France, expected to arrive in Abomey, former seat of the Dahomey Kingdom, in about five years time
April 2023
France's long-awaited report on restitution policy recommends a pragmatic approach using illegality and illegitimacy as the basis for restitutions
February 2023
The Paris appeals court has upheld charges of complicity in fraud and money laundering against ex-president and director of the Louvre Jean-Luc Martinez
January 2023
France's Ministry of Culture is pushing forward with three framework laws, one of which will enable the return of larger numbers of looted colonial objects
December 2022
The legendary "talking drum", seized by French colonial settlers in 1916, is ready to be returned to Cote d'Ivoire under a restitution plan promised by President Emmanuel Macron
November 2022
Five years after French President Emmanuel Macron pledged to return works looted from Africa during the Colonial period, why have only a few objects been returned?
September 2022
A French prosecutor has demanded a suspended sentence and a fine for French art dealer Didier Wormser who is accused of trafficking stolen Egyptian antiquities
May 2022
Former director of the Louvre, Jean-Luc Martinez, charged with 'complicity of gang fraud and laundering' of antiquities
March 2022
A rare wooden 'Ngil' mask, used by the Fang people of Gabon, sold at auction for $4.6m (excl. fees) amid Gabonese protesters calling for its restitution
February 2022
The French government is resisting a new draft restitution bill, further delaying President Macron's calls in 2017 for the return of Africa's heritage
January 2022
Sotheby's and the Louvre in Paris are to research objects acquired by the Museum between 1933 and 1945 that "may lead to restitutions"
November 2021
On 15 December a France's Culture Committee will discuss whether to establish a legal framework for the return of cultural property to their country of origin
November 2021
President Patrice Talon of Benin describes return of 26 objects 'only one step in the ambitious process of equity and restitution of heritage memorials'
Presidence De La Republique Du Benin
November 2021
France returns 26 works looted from the Royal Treasury of Abomey to Benin at a signing ceremony on 9 November 2021 held at the Elysee Palace, Paris
October 2021
Republic of Benin demands more restitutions of objects looted from Abomey's royal palace in 1892 now in the Musee du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac
October 2021
French President Macron announces the return of the Djidji Ayokwe, the "talking drum" of the Ebrie people, to the Ivory Coast
December 2020
French National Assembly gives final unanimous approval for return of 27 plundered artefacts from Benin and Senegal
November 2020
France agrees the long-term loan of the crown of Queen Ranavalona III from the Museum of the French Armies in Paris to Madagascar
October 2020
France's National Assembly approves a groundbreaking bill to return 27 looted African objects to Benin and Senegal
September 2020
Parisian gallery, Cybele, is seeking reimbursement for an Egyptian stele of the Late Period, claiming a false provenance was knowingly provided by Christophe Kunicki, currently facing charges for fraud and money laundering
July 2020
France takes first steps towards new legislation that commits them to return items known to have been looted to their country of origin
July 2020
The remains of 24 Algerian resistance fighters, taken as 'war trophies' in the 19th cent, are returned to Algiers by the Musee de l'Homme
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/algeria-france-anti-colonial-fighters-remains-repatriated
January 2020
A collective of Parisian antiquarian collectors return 27 Benin objects, looted from the Kingdom of Dahomey in the 19th cent, to the Petit Musee de la Recade in Benin
December 2019
French Culture Minister confirms France intends to return 26 royal artefacts to Benin by 2021, subject to the adoption of a specific new law
November 2019
French Prime Minister returns a historic 19th cent sword to President of Senegal as a symbol of France’s commitment to repatriating African heritage
June 2019
Two Chancay statuettes and a Chimu carved stick, looted from a pre-Columbian tomb and intercepted by French customs in 2007 at Roissy airport in France, returned to Peru
June 2018
Nine illegally smuggled Egyptian artefacts, including statuary and coffins, repatriated to Egypt after seizure at a railways station in Paris in 2012
October 2017
France returns eight Egyptian archaeological items, seized by the French customs in 2010, to Egyptian authorities
September 2015
An Olmec bas-relief column dated to 900 BC stolen from a site in Chiapas between 1968 and 1972 has been returned to Mexico
December 2014
Two hundred and fifty ancient Egyptian artefacts, seized at Charles de Gaulle airport, in November and March 2010, returned by the French government to the Egyptian embassy in Paris
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/france-returns-250-smuggled-ancient-artifacts-to-egypt-184913
June 2013
Francois-Henri Pinault returns two bronzes from the collection of Yves Saint Laurent, looted in 1860 from the Old Summer Palace, to the National Museum in China
https://uk.phaidon.com/agenda/art/articles/2013/april/29/christies-head-give-bronzes-back-to-china/
January 2013
France has returned to Nigeria five ancient terracotta sculptures of Nok origin, smuggled out of the country in 2010 and discovered in luggage at a Paris airport
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-21246767
January 2012
France returns twenty mummified heads of Maori warriors, acquired by European sailors in the 18th and 19th centuries, to New Zealand
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16695330
November 2010
French President Nicolas Sarkozy announces the return to Korea of the Uigwe books, looted from a Korean island in 1866, on a five-year renewable lease
January 2010
French Government handed over two artefacts illegally removed from Nigeria during the colonial period
https://www.modernghana.com/news/261494/france-returns-looted-artefacts-to-nigeria-beginn.html
December 2009
As a "testament to France's desire to fight against the illegal trafficking of cultural goods", five fragments of an Egyptian wall painting are returned to Egypt from the Louvre
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/dec/14/france-louvre-returns-egypt-relics
February 2002
The human remains of Saartjie Baartman, the 'Hottentot Venus', are returned by France to her homeland in South Africa
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2002/feb/21/internationaleducationnews.highereducation
January 2002
Nigeria agrees France can retain three 1,500-year-old Nok statues for exhibition at the Louvre on a 25-year renewable lease on condition they accept Nigeria's ownership
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/1790882.stm
January 1998
A 'Thial' animal figurine discovered in France returned to the National Museum of Bamako in Mali
October 1997
An African 'Lwena' statuette, identified at a public auction in Saint Germain-en-Laye in 1996, has been returned to the National Museum of Anthropology of Angola
May 1996
French police return three stolen terracotta heads stolen in 1994 from the National Museum Gallery, Ile-Ife, Nigeria
April 1996
A Bété statuette returns for exhibition at the Musée des Civilizations du Côte d'Ivoire in Abidjan after its disappearance in the 1970s
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