Three laws relating to the restitution of foreign cultural property, human remains and works looted by the Nazis will be presented to the French Parliament in 2023, the government announced on Monday.
A report to prepare a legislative text setting “a doctrine and criteria for the returnability” of foreign works must be submitted in the coming weeks, the Ministry of Culture told AFP on Monday.
It is produced by the former director of the Louvre Museum, Jean-Luc Martinez, appointed ambassador for heritage in 2021.
“As our collections are inalienable, if we have to make a specific law for each return, it will be long and complex,” French Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak told the newspaper. The world.
The restitution of foreign property is a very sensitive subject. And the pressure has increased further in recent years, in the wake of movements against racism, for Western museums to return works, in particular obtained during the colonial period, to their country of origin.
In 2021, Paris had returned to Benin 26 works from the royal treasures of Abomey, looted in 1892 by French troops. They were kept in the Parisian museum of Quai Branly. France also returned a saber to Senegal in 2019 and a crown to Madagascar in 2020.
In December, Germany had returned to Nigeria 22 bronzes of the former kingdom of Benin, looted during the colonial era.
But in mid-January, the British government dashed hopes of a rapid return to Greece of the Parthenon friezes, exhibited at the British Museum in London, including in the form of a long-term loan.
Concerning the spoliations at the time of Nazism, the French Minister of Culture will introduce a law “in the coming months” to “facilitate” restitutions, in order to “go to the end of our duty of memory”.
In March 2022, a painting by Gustav Klimt was returned by France to its owner’s heirs, as part of a law authorizing the return of 15 works from public collections to the heirs of looted Jewish families.
A third law on the restitution of identified human remains of foreign origin and claimed by third countries will also arrive “soon in the legislative calendar”.