France Passes Law Allowing Museums to Restitute Nazi-Looted Artworks

The French National Assembly voted unanimously on June 29 to adopt a new law that allows public institutions to return Nazi-looted objects in their collections, streamlining the country’s laborious process for restitution.

The new heritage code establishes a framework for public collections to restitute objects and artworks to the heirs of the original Jewish owners without the need for individual legislation to be passed for each case, as was previously the procedure. The legislation encompasses cultural property proven to have been stolen or unwillingly surrendered between January 30, 1933 and May 8, 1945.

The French Ministry of Culture estimates some 100,000 artworks were seized “in the context of anti-Semitic persecution” during the Second World War. 

Until now, restitution goals have been impeded by France’s heritage code, which classifies museum collections as “inalienable.” 

French President Emmanuel Macron has made restitution and repatriation—the restoration of cultural property to individuals and nations, respectively—a priority of his administration. In a watershed moment for his presidency, the National Assembly last year overcame opposition from the French Senate to transfer ownership of 26 stolen royal artifacts from the Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac to the Republic of Benin, as well as one object from the Army Museum to Senegal. The works were relinquished on the condition that they “continue to be preserved and presented to the public in places dedicated to this [cultural] function.”

“I hope 2023 will be a year of decisive progress for restitutions,” French culture minister Rima Abdul Malak said in her annual New Year speech on January 16. She added that the country’s approach to its history must be “neither one of denial nor of repentance, but one of recognition.”