{"id":1705,"date":"2018-05-28T03:46:23","date_gmt":"2018-05-28T03:46:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/archaeology.sa\/en\/?p=1705"},"modified":"2018-05-28T03:50:59","modified_gmt":"2018-05-28T03:50:59","slug":"emmanuel-macron-says-france-may-return-museum-artefacts-to-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.archaeology.sa\/en\/?p=1705","title":{"rendered":"Emmanuel Macron says France may return museum artefacts to Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nLike Britain, France has long resisted demands to return artefacts to the countries that claim to be their rightful owners, but Emmanuel Macron has signalled a change in policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want the conditions to be created within five years for the temporary or permanent return of Africa\u2019s heritage to Africa,\u201d the French president said during a visit in November to Burkina Faso, a former French colony in west Africa. <\/p>\n

African artefacts, he added, \u201ccannot just remain in European private collections and museums.\u201d
\nMr Macron has appointed B\u00e9n\u00e9dicte Savoy, a French art historian, and Felwine Sarr, a Senegalese writer, to examine how artefacts now in France may be sent to African countries that claim them. <\/p>\n

Pascal Blanchard, a historian, said Mr Macron “made European curators quake in their boots.\u201d<\/p>\n

But restoring objects of immense artistic and historical value to those that claim ownership is a legal and ethical minefield. \u201cIt\u2019s one hell of a challenge,\u201d Ms Savoy said.<\/p>\n

Laws often prevent European countries from returning them, while conservationists have argued that artefacts could be damaged or stolen if sent to politically unstable countries lacking properly equipped museums.<\/p>\n

France rejected demands last year from another former west African colony, Benin, to send back up to 6,000 royal thrones, sceptres and statues. Following Mr Macron\u2019s comments, the issue will now be re-examined.<\/p>\n

Mr Blanchard said Nigeria, with well-established museums, had \u201call the ingredients for solid restitution claims\u201d, whereas other African countries such as impoverished Chad \u201cdo not currently have museums and cultural heritage services capable of restoring and displaying these objects\u201d.<\/p>\n

Marie-C\u00e9cile Zinsou, the daughter of a former prime minister of Benin, is campaigning for the restitution of the \u201ctreasure of our ancestors\u201d, but she acknowledges that Africans themselves are divided on restitution.
\n\u201cMy best friend, the artist Romuald Hazoum\u00e9, a Beninois, is against it. He thinks we won\u2019t be able to look after the artefacts. But I believe we will. This is a way for us to recover part of our history. It\u2019s essential for young Africans to have access to their heritage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Zinsou pointed out that the British Museum has agreed to discuss the issue of \u201cplundered artefacts\u201d raised in the Hollywood blockbuster \u201cBlack Panther\u201d.<\/p>\n

In the film, the character Erik \u201cKillmonger\u201d Stevens, played by Michael B. Jordan, steals an African “war hammer” from the British Museum after telling the curator, \u201cHow do you think your ancestors got these? Do you think they paid a fair price? Or did they just take it\u2026 like they took everything else?\u201d<\/p>\n

The Representative Council of France\u2019s Black Associations, an umbrella group that defends African and Afro-Caribbean interests, wants France to return about 5,000 objects.<\/p>\n

By: David Chazan, paris
\nfrom: Telegraph<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like Britain, France has long resisted demands to return artefacts to the countries that claim to be their rightful owners, but Emmanuel Macron has signalled a change in policy. \u201cI want the conditions to be created within five years for the temporary or permanent return of Africa\u2019s heritage to Africa,\u201d the French president said during […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1708,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archaeology.sa\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1705"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archaeology.sa\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archaeology.sa\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archaeology.sa\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archaeology.sa\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1705"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.archaeology.sa\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1710,"href":"https:\/\/www.archaeology.sa\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1705\/revisions\/1710"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archaeology.sa\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archaeology.sa\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archaeology.sa\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archaeology.sa\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}