China reports more than 1,800 sets of cultural items have been returned over past decade

24 August 2022

Returning China’s cultural heritage is a constitutional obligation for Chinese citizens. The newly opened Hong Kong Palace Museum aims to support these efforts to repatriate the nation's cultural heritage and in the last ten years more than 1,800 sets of cultural artefacts, previously lost overseas, have been returned to China. According to Huo Zhengxin, a law professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, these cultural artefacts are being returned in one of four ways: through law enforcement agencies, diplomatic negotiations, acquisitions or donations. Among their achievements, the country’s National Cultural Heritage Administration reports that the return of the head of a bronze Chinese zodiac horse statue, stolen by British and French troops 160 years ago, to its home at the Yuanmingyuan (Old Summer Palace) in Beijing is seen as a crucial step in repatriating important cultural relics stolen by invaders. The head was donated to the National Museum of China in November 2019 by the late Macao casino tycoon Stanley Ho. He bought the head for HK$69.1m ($8.84m) at an auction in September 2007. Many Chinese netizens view its return as a symbol of “washing away national humiliation”.

Glasgow Life Museums becomes the first UK museums service to repatriate stolen artefacts to India

19 August 2022

Following Glasgow City Council’s groundbreaking approval in April to return important cultural artefacts to source communities, this week Glasgow Life, the charity that operates the city’s museum collections, signed an historic agreement to repatriate seven objects to India. It’s understood the transfer of ownership ceremony, which took place at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum and included dignitaries from the High Commission of India, marks the first UK museums service to repatriate artefacts to India. Officials from Glasgow Life Museums and the High Commission of India in London have been working towards the return of these seven objects since January 2021. The objects include a ceremonial Indo-Persian tulwar (sword), believed to date to the 14^th century, and a carved stone door jamb, removed from a Hindu temple in Kanpur dating to the 11^th century. Six of the objects were removed from temples and shrines in different states in Northern India during the 19^th century; the seventh was purchased following a theft from the owner. All seven objects were gifted to Glasgow’s collections. Since the return of a Ghost Dance Shirt to South Dakota in 1998, Glasgow has led the way in returning important cultural artefacts. They will be returning 25 further items to South Dakota later this year, together with 19 Benin Bronzes to Nigeria.

Renowned Egyptologist Dr Zahi Hawass announces plans to recover the Rosetta Stone and other iconic Egyptian artefacts

19 August 2022

Almost three years after announcing he is leading a “committee of intellectual Egyptians and foreigners” to ask for the return of the Rosetta Stone in London, the Nefertiti bust in Berlin and the Zodiac ceiling in Paris, Dr Zahi Hawass now says he is launching a petition that he will send to the three European museums holding these items in October. Ever since 2003 when, as head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, he informed Neil MacGregor, then Director of the British Museum, that he would go into battle with the Museum if they didn’t return the Rosetta Stone to Egypt, Hawass has maintained this hugely important artefact, the key to unlocking the mystery of hieroglyphics, left the country illegally and has campaigned for its return. “The Rosetta Stone is the icon of Egyptian identity,” he says. “The British Museum has no right to show this artefact to the public.” Inspired by other recent restitution developments and without holding any official position in the current administration, he is re-energising his public campaign to see the three objects installed on permanent exhibition in Cairo’s new Grand Egyptian Museum. “If I did not succeed,” at least people after me will continue,” he insists. “This is a cause that you cannot stop.”

US Restitution Study Group lobbies the Charity Commission to reject plans to return Benin Bronzes to Nigeria

16 August 2022

A New York-based non-profit organisation that campaigns on behalf of descendants of enslaved people living in the USA, the Caribbean and Great Britain, has sent an open letter to the UK Charity Commission urging them to reject plans by leading UK museums to repatriate Benin objects to Nigeria. Claiming a “co-ownership interest” in these artefacts, the Restitution Study Group instead proposes the Horniman Museum and the Oxford and Cambridge university museums continue to hold them in trust. “They are the wealth and legacy of slave descendants, not the slave traders,” claims the letter. “We want our children and the world to see these treasures and to learn their slave trade origin.” The Group believes Nigeria would be “unjustly enriched” by repatriation of these artefacts, which were made from the manilla currency the Kingdom of Benin was paid “to raid villages with illegal guns and other weapons, steal women, children and men, sell them into the Transatlantic slave trade, and sometimes kill them in ritual sacrifices.” The museums require authorisation from the Charity Commission before legal ownership of their Benin Bronzes can be transferred.

Progress in the return of looted artefacts to former Dutch colonies is slower than anticipated

13 August 2022

In March 2021 we reported on progress in the Netherlands towards the introduction of groundbreaking proposals for returning objects stolen from former Dutch colonies. At its core is a recognition of historical injustice and a requirement for government to put in place a mechanism for evaluating restitution requests. But progress is proving much slower than anticipated. Algemeen Dagblad reports that 18 months after the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science proposed an independent assessment committee, it has still not been established. This confirms the fears expressed by some that it will take a very long time before Dutch colonial looted artefacts are returned. A government spokesperson expects the committee will start “sometime this autumn”.

Delegation from British Columbia aims to recover totem pole stolen in 1929

12 August 2022

A delegation from the Nisga’a Lisims Government of British Columbia, Canada is heading to Scotland to ask officials at National Museums Scotland for the return of a carved Ni’isjoohl totem pole, taken without consent in 1929 by the ethnographer Marius Barbeau. “The pole holds significant knowledge within its carvings,” according to a statement released by the Nisga’a Lisims Government (NLG), “and can serve as a form of curriculum for the next generation to learn a Nisga’a way of life”. Removed during a period when it was common in Canada for settlers and anthropologists to collect Indigenous belongings, Barbeau took the pole, erected in the 1860s, from the House of Ni’isjoohl while members were away for the annual food harvesting season. NLG delegates claim that repatriation of the pole is subject to Article 12 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Its repatriation would be an important step the National Museums of Scotland could take towards reconciliation through concrete action. The Museum has released its own statement that says it is looking forward to hosting the delegation, sharing information and sharing their procedure for restitution requests. If the NLG appeal succeeds, it would be the second pole ever to be repatriated back to Canada from a European museum.

New law requires New York museums to label art stolen by the Nazis

10 August 2022

As part of a series of measures to honour and support Holocaust survivors in educational, cultural and financial institutions, Governor Kathy Hochul today signed a new legislative package into New York state law requiring museums to acknowledge art stolen by the Nazi regime. “During the Holocaust, some 600,000 paintings were stolen from Jewish people not only for their value, but to wipe our culture and identity off the face of the Earth,” said State Senator Anna M. Kaplan who introduced the bill. “Today, artwork previously stolen by the Nazis can be found hanging in museums around New York with no recognition of the dark paths they travelled there. With the history of the Holocaust being so important to pass on to the next generation, it’s vital that we be transparent and ensure that anyone viewing artwork stolen by the Nazis understands where it came from and its role in history.” Legislation A.3719A/S.117A requires museums to place prominent signage alongside any work of art stolen from Europeans during the Nazi era, primarily from Jewish families, in order to acknowledge and disclose information about its history.

Arts Council England publishes new guidelines for restitution and repatriation

05 August 2022

For more than twenty years, UK museums have had to rely on guidance produced by the now defunct Museums and Galleries Commission for advice on returning objects from their collections. However, this month Arts Council England (ACE) published new guidelines which update and clarify the process. Restitution and Repatriation: A Practical Guide for Museums in England provides guidance on how to interpret existing policy rather than introducing new policy. “The guidance is underpinned by existing policy and legislative framework,” an ACE statement insists, while supporting “museums in making decisions and managing cases in a legally appropriate and ethically responsible manner”. Offering guidelines, best practice and case studies for the museum sector, the new guidance introduces much greater clarity about how museums should respond to claims, according to Alexander Herman, director of the Institute of Art and Law (IAL). Herman assisted in preparing this new guidance and ensured it reflects recent developments in the restitution debate. The guidelines also stress the “rich opportunities” that repatriation can present for enhancing a greater understanding for all the parties involved, including the opportunity for museums to develop their collections knowledge and research. The Museums Association reports the publication of this document was held back on several occasions due to its “increased political sensitivity”. The hiatus between British prime ministers provided an opportunity for the document’s publication.