Many European museum collections contain artefacts, taken from former (mostly African) colonies. In recent years, museums of former colonial powers are met with increasing demands to return the looted heritage to their countries of origin. The movement for the decolonisation of cultural heritage has advanced the furthest in France, where the president Emmanuel Macron ordered the inauguration of the committee for restitution.
According to a committee member Felwine Sarr, almost two-thirds of over 90,000 African objects in French museums, are obtained during the colonial period. Many African countries, have already made lists of looted items and submitted claims for restitution. They demand the return of objects with great symbolic meaning, while other, less relevant items, will likely stay abroad, possibly as a loan.
But France is not the only country that has to deal with its ugly colonial past. Similar debates were since started in other former colonizing countries including England, Belgium and Austria. However, although this is an important step, the decolonisation of the arts and heritage sector doesn’t end at restitution. There’s so much more, cultural institutions can commit to, to ensure the proper treatment of non-European heritage.
