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Paris (AFP) – French President Emmanuel Macron agreed on Friday to return "without delay" 26 cultural artefacts to Benin, which could encourage other former colonial powers to return African works of art to their country. d & # 39; origin.
The decision – which according to Macron should not be seen as an isolated or symbolic case – was made when the president received the results of a study that he had commissioned on the repatriation of African treasures retained by them. French museums.
Macron agreed to return the 26 works, mainly royal statues of the Abomey palaces – formerly the capital of the kingdom of Dahomey – taken by the French army during a war in 1892 and now at the musée du Quai Branly in Paris.
In addition, he proposed to bring African and European partners together in Paris next year to define a framework for an "exchange policy" for African works of art.
The president "hopes that all the possibilities of dissemination of these works will be taken into account: returns, but also exhibitions, loans, increased cooperation," said the palace of the Elysee.
Ousmane Aledji, director of the Benin cultural center Artisttik Africa, said he is delighted to see "a new form of cultural exchange" with France.
Britain has also faced calls for restitution of items such as Elgin marbles in Greece and Benin bronzes in Nigeria, while museums in Belgium and Austria are home to tens of thousands of African works.
– Legislation to make the art? –
Calls for restitution of works of art are multiplying in Africa, but French law formally prohibits the government from transferring state property, even in cases of well documented looting.
In 2016, Benin asked France to return items including statues, works of art, sculptures, scepters and sacred doors.
While this request was initially denied, Macron had given rise to hope in a speech delivered in Burkina Faso in November 2016, in which he pledged to "restore the African heritage to the world." 39; Africa. "
After his speech, Macron asked the French art historian Benedicte Savoy and the Senegalese writer Felwine Sarr to study the issue.
Their report, a copy of which was seen by AFP, was well received by defenders of the return of works bought, exchanged or simply stolen.
He proposes that legislation be developed to return thousands of African artifacts taken during the colonial period to nations that request it.
However, there are certain conditions, including a request from the country concerned, specific information about the origins of the works and the existence of appropriate facilities, such as museums, to store the works in their home country. ;origin.
The Macron office said museums would be invited to "identify African partners and organize possible returns" and should quickly establish an "online inventory of their African collections".
The President also called for "in-depth work with other European states retaining collections of the same nature acquired in comparable circumstances".
– Museums fear losing their artifacts –
A UNESCO Convention Against the Export of Illicit Cultural Property, adopted in 1970, provided for the return of cultural property seized in a country, but did not deal with historical cases, including the colonial period.
Museums fearing to be forced to return artifacts, the former colonial powers have been slow to ratify the convention: France did it only 1997, Britain in 2002, Germany in 2007 and Belgium in 2009 .
On Tuesday, the governor of Easter Island in the Pacific begged the British Museum to return him one of his famous statues.
The London Museum organizes Hoa Hakananai, one of the most spiritually important stone monoliths of the Chilean island, for 150 years.
Of the approximately 90,000 African works exhibited in French museums, approximately 70,000 are at the Musée du Quai Branly, created by former president Jacques Chirac, a great lover of African and Asian art.
Elsewhere in Europe, 37,000 objects from sub-Saharan Africa were located at the Vienna Weltmuseum and 180,000 at the Royal Belgian Museum of Central Africa in Tervuren.
According to the report commissioned by Macron, such collections effectively deprive Africans of their artistic and cultural heritage.
"On a continent where 60% of the population is under the age of 20, the most important thing is that young people have access to their own culture, creativity and spirituality. time "m said.
