At the end of 2018, the report [PDF] on the restitution of African cultural heritage written by Bénédicte Savoy with the Senegalese writer and academic Felwine Sarr, at the request of Emmanuel Macron, was widely criticized. Five years later, the “anti-restitution” are becoming more and more discreet. Through her interventions in the public debate, the professor of art history at the Technical University of Berlin has largely contributed to weakening their arguments.
“L’Obs” met her to talk about her latest book, “Le Long combat de l’Afrique pour son art” (Seuil), and the acceleration of initiatives in a key file for the future of relations between Europe and Africa.
At the end of 2021, France proceeded for the first time to a massive restitution of works of art to one of its former colonies, Benin. A few months later, Belgium and Germany followed suit. Does this mean that in a few years, in Europe, the debate has definitively turned in favor of the restitution of African heritage?
Benedict Savoy For sure. In Germany, for example, the most prominent European country on the issue, we always hear opponents, but their voices are isolated. What is important is that all public institutions are now committed to this principle. Including those which, until recently, fiercely opposed it, such as the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation which runs the major museums of Berlin. In very little
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