On a visit to Burkina Faso last year, Emmanuel Macron promised to repatriate Africa’s plundered artworks. The French president said he would start a process of returning African art and artefacts held in France’s public collections, as part of efforts to reset relations with former colonies. “The crimes of European colonisation are unquestionable,” he said. “It’s a past that needs to pass.”
Just months later, Mr Macron has followed up on his promise by appointing two independent experts, Senegalese economist Felwine Sarr and French art historian Bénédicte Savoy, to draw up a set of recommendations for how to do it.
It is a highly significant move. For the first time, a conversation that is usually held behind the closed doors of museums will be brought into the public gaze, when the two make their report in November. Every western museum with ethnographic holdings will be watching intently. Although guidelines set in France might have no legal sway in other countries, the moral pressure of public opinion will carry weight elsewhere.