The French National Assembly is currently examining a bill that African countries have long hoped would be adopted. The law aims to facilitate the return of stolen artworks taken during the colonial period in the 19th and 20th centuries to their countries of origin.

The Senate had already unanimously approved the bill at the end of last January. The proposal, which has been repeatedly delayed, was promised by President Emmanuel Macron in 2017 during a speech in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The first requests for restitution date back to the period when African countries gained independence, and they increased in the 1970s with the support of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO.

Despite Macron’s promise made nine years ago, restitution efforts remain very limited because transferring artworks that are part of France’s public collections requires specific legislation. This has caused delays, further compounded by the parliament’s ongoing focus on a busy legislative agenda.

The Louvre Museum in Paris (AFP)

From this perspective, the need for this framework law has emerged. It aims to help organize future restitution operations in a more effective way, as recently explained by the French Minister of Culture Catherine Pégard.

The law would make it easier to carry out restitution by allowing the use of decrees in the future instead of relying on a long legislative process with uncertain outcomes. At the same time, it establishes safeguards, most notably clearly defined criteria to verify that the acquisition was unlawful.

The draft law only covers property looted between 1815 and 1972, that is, between the beginning of the second French colonial empire and the entry into force of a UNESCO treaty that introduced a restitution system into international law.