The new French law on the restitution of cultural property (external link), adopted on 13 April 2026, introduces a pathway for returning cultural objects but leaves unaddressed the colonial violence and systemic extraction through which many of these objects were acquired. Most notably, it avoids any explicit recognition of colonial violence as the central context of dispossession. This omission is not incidental. It forms part of a broader pattern in which recent Western efforts to address the colonial past take the form of political gesturing without substantive engagement. It reflects a deeper contradiction: the law advances a restitution agenda while depoliticizing and dehistoricizing the processes of colonial extraction that make restitution necessary.
Below is our statement with partners, Pan African Lawyers Union (external link)and Reform Initiatives (external link).