France urged to return pillaged African art

‘‘Within five years I want the conditions to be met for the ... restitution of African heritage to Africa’

FRANCE should change heritage laws to facilitate the return of thousands of African artworks pillaged or bought during the colonial era, governmentappointed experts are to advise Emmanuel Macron, the president.

If approved, it would amount to a radical policy shift that could pile pressure on Britain and other ex-colonial powers to hand back long-held artefacts to their countries of origin.

The report follows a groundswell of calls to return cultural treasures to Africa, amid estimations that up to 90 per cent of its cultural heritage is in foreign hands. France alone possesses around 90,000 African artworks, some 70,000 of which are at the Quai Branly museum in Paris.

Currently, French law strictly forbids the government from parting with what amounts to state property, even in clear-cut cases of pillaging. But Mr Macron signalled he was prepared to consider change in a speech in Burkina Faso last year in which he said: “Africa’s heritage cannot just be in European private collections and museums.

“Within five years I want the conditions to be met for the temporary or definitive restitution of African heritage to Africa.”

Mr Macron tasked Bénédicte Savoy, a French art historian, and Felwine Sarr, a Senegalese writer, to draw up a report on the issue.

Due for release tomorrow but leaked to French media yesterday, the report suggests amending French laws to enable the restitution of cultural works if bilateral accords are struck between France and African states.