Time for France to give back looted African art, experts say

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African artworks held in French museums — richly carved thrones, doors to a royal kingdom, wooden statues imbued with spiritual meaning — may be heading back home to Africa at last.

French President Emmanuel Macron, trying to turn the page on France's colonial past, received a report on Friday on returning art looted from African lands.

From Senegal to Ethiopia, artists, governments, and museums eagerly awaited the report by French art historian Benedicte Savoy and Senegalese economist Felwine Sarr, which was commissioned by Macron himself.

It recommends that French museums must give back works that were taken without consent, if African countries request them — and could increase pressure on museums elsewhere in Europe to follow the suit.

The experts estimate that up to 90 percent of African art is outside the continent, including statues, thrones and manuscripts. Thousands of works are held by just one museum, the Quai Branly Museum in Paris, opened in 2006 to showcase non-European art — much of it from former French colonies. The museum did not immediately comment on the report.

Among disputed treasures in the Quai Branly are several works from the Dahomey kingdom, in today's West African country of Benin: the metal-and-wood throne of 19th-century King Ghezo, the doors to the palace of King Gele, and imposing wooden statues.

The report shows "a new era of thought" in Europe's relations with Africa, said Yonas Desta, head of Ethiopia's Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage.

Senegal's culture minister, Abdou Latif Coulibaly, told The Associated Press: "It's entirely logical that Africans should get back their artworks. These works were taken in conditions that were perhaps legitimate at the time, but illegitimate today."

Two heads of a royal ancestor (Uhunmwun Elao) on display, 18th century (R) and 19th century (C), in Quai Branly Museum, Paris, France, November 23, 2018. /VCG Photo

The report is just a first step. Challenges ahead include enforcing the report's recommendations, especially if museums resist, and determining how objects were obtained and whom to give them to.

The report is part of broader promises by Macron to turn the page on France's troubled relationship with Africa. In a groundbreaking meeting with students in Burkina Faso last year, Macron stressed the "undeniable crimes of European colonization" and said he wants pieces of African cultural heritage to return to Africa "temporarily or definitively."

"I cannot accept that a large part of African heritage is in France," he had said at the time.

The French report could have broader repercussions. In Cameroon, professor Verkijika Fanso, a historian at the University of Yaoundé I, said: "France is feeling the heat of what others will face. Let their decision to bring back what is ours motivate others."

Germany has worked to return art seized by the Nazis, and in May the organization that coordinates that effort, the German Lost Art Foundation, said it was starting a program to research the provenance of cultural objects collected during the country's colonial past.

Britain is also under pressure to return art taken from its former colonies. In recent months, Ethiopian officials have increased efforts to secure the return of looted artifacts and manuscripts from museums, personal collections, and government institutions across Britain, including valuable items taken in the 1860s after battles in northern Ethiopia, said Yonas.

In Nigeria, a group of bronze casters has strongly supported calls for the return of artifacts taken from the Palace of the Oba of Benin in 1897 when the British raided it. The group still uses their forefathers' centuries-old skills to produce bronze works in Igun Street, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Eric Osamudiamen Ogbemudia, secretary of the Igun Bronze Casters Union in Benin city, said: "It was never the intention of our fathers to give these works to the British. It is important that we get them back so as to see what our ancestors left behind."

China is also committed to bringing its looted cultural treasures back.

Looted ancient gold foils returned to China by the French government on display in Gansu Provincial Museum, Lanzhou City, northwest China's Gansu Province, July 20, 2015. /VCG Photo

The country, with a 5,000-year-old history and abundant artifacts, experienced an intense period of relics looting by foreigners when it was reduced to a semi-colony. In the two Opium Wars during the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), troops from an international coalition invaded China and looted royal palaces and gardens, including the old Summer Palace, which was burnt down by the British Army at the time.

Later in the late 19th century, exploration teams from Europe and the U.S. went to western China without the permission of the then Chinese government, and stole artifacts from historical sites, including Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang City, northwest China's Gansu Province. Japanese troops also plundered relics when they invaded and occupied China in the 1930s and 1940s.

China joined the 1970 UNESCO Convention in 1989 and the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention in 1997 to curb illegal transaction of cultural heritage. But since both treaties are not retroactive a large number of relics cannot be repatriated.

Presently, donation and purchase are two major means to retrieve artifacts that were illegally taken away from China.

In July 2015, the restitution of 32 looted ancient gold foils to China from the French government marked the first successful case of Chinese authorities bringing back the lost heritage after a decade-long campaign and negotiations.

(Top image: Three royal statues of the ancient African Kingdom of Dahomey on display at the Quai Branly Museum in Paris, France, November 23, 2018. /AFP Photo)

Source(s): AP