France Simplifies Return of Looted Artifacts, Benefiting Countries of Origin

(CNA Paris, 16th) The French Parliament has passed a bill aimed at simplifying the process for returning art and cultural artifacts looted between 1815 and 1972 to their countries of origin.

Agence France-Presse reports that France still holds tens of thousands of art pieces and other valuable artifacts looted from its colonial empire. This draft bill for the return of cultural property was unanimously passed by the National Assembly (lower house) on the evening of the 13th, following its unanimous approval by the Senate (upper house) in January this year.

French President Emmanuel Macron has made the return of cultural property a political commitment, taking further steps than his predecessors in acknowledging France's past colonial atrocities in Africa.

Shortly after taking office in 2017, during a visit to Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, Macron vowed that France would never again interfere in the affairs of its former colonies and pledged to facilitate the return of African cultural heritage within five years.

This bill, passed on the 13th, aims to streamline operational procedures, specifically targeting assets acquired between 1815 and 1972.

In recent years, former European colonial powers have gradually pushed for the return of some artworks acquired during their imperial expansion. However, existing French law has posed an obstacle, requiring each item in national collections to be voted on individually.

France currently receives a large number of restitution requests, including applications from countries such as Algeria, Mali, and Benin.

In 2025, the French Parliament approved the return of a "talking drum" acquired from the Ebrie people in 1916 to Ivory Coast, and this artifact has since returned to its place of origin.

This bill has sparked political contention in France. The far-left La France Insoumise (LFI) advocates for expanding its scope, while the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) wishes to limit the return of colonial-era artifacts to countries that maintain "friendly" relations with France.

In recent years, a series of coups in West Africa have led to the emergence of several military governments hostile to France in this former French colonial territory.

In 2023, France passed two so-called framework laws specifically addressing the return of two types of objects: one for property looted from Jewish families during World War II, and another for repatriating human remains from public collections to their places of origin.

English-language Chinese media "China Daily" reported that the French Parliament's passage of the bill, aimed at simplifying the process for returning looted artworks from 1815 to 1972, represents a significant advance in the global movement to return cultural relics to their countries of origin.

The report stated that this is good news for China, as the Chinese Pavilion in the Palace of Fontainebleau alone reportedly houses over 1,000 Chinese cultural relics, which were looted during the Anglo-French invasion of Beijing's Old Summer Palace in the Xianfeng era of the Qing Dynasty. (Compiled by Chen Yu-ting, Chen Yi-wei) 20260417