Proposed Restitution Law in France Advances in National Assembly
A proposed French restitution law advanced after the National Assembly’s Cultural Affairs Committee approved it on Wednesday, following unanimous approval by the Senate’s Cultural Affairs Committee in January, with a plenary debate scheduled for 13 April. Cited by Le Monde, historian Bénédicte Savoy—who co-authored a major 2018 restitution report with Senegalese economist Felwine Sarr—called the vote a sign that France can relinquish collections “accumulated through violence.” The bill would allow restitution to be ordered by decree of the Minister of Culture, replacing a system in which each restitution required specific legislation, and it applies to the period from 1815 to 1972 (the year the UNESCO Convention on the Restitution of Cultural Property entered into force) without explicitly naming colonialism. Alexandre Portier, chair of the National Assembly’s Cultural Affairs Committee, said lawmakers are balancing “repentance” and “amnesia,” while Culture Minister Catherine Pégard described the measure as a law of “responsibility and truth.”
From This Briefing
This story was covered in Museum Power Shifts and Restitution Reckonings