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, reports The Telegraph.
“I want the conditions to be created within five years for the temporary or permanent return of Africa’s heritage to Africa,” the French president said during a visit in November to Burkina Faso, a former French colony in west Africa.
African artefacts, he added, “cannot just remain in European private collections and museums.”
Mr Macron has appointed Bénédicte 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.
Pascal Blanchard, a historian, said Mr Macron "made European curators quake in their boots”.
But restoring objects of immense artistic and historical value to those that claim ownership is a legal and ethical minefield. “It’s one hell of a challenge,” Ms Savoy said.
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.
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’s comments, the issue will now be re-examined.