The German government and 16 states have agreed to set up a council to oversee the restitution of cultural property and human remains in public collections that were acquired in a colonial context.<\/p>\n
The new panel, known as the Coordination Council for Returns of Cultural Property and Human Remains from Colonial Contexts, will include representatives of the central government, states and municipal authorities, according to a statement. The statement was released by 16 state culture ministers and representatives of Germany\u2019s foreign ministry and culture ministry, following a meeting yesterday (30 March).<\/p>\n
Germany\u2019s culture minister Wolfram Weimer described the new council as \u201can important step in responsibly handling cultural property and human remains from colonial contexts\u201d that will help \u201cshape ongoing and future restitution processes more effectively\u201d. The new council will also coordinate with counterparts in coordinating countries.<\/p>\n
The German states and government agreed in 2019 to repatriate artefacts in public collections that were taken \u201cin ways that are legally or morally unjustifiable today\u201d from former colonies, describing their return as \u201can ethical and moral duty\u201d. They also agreed to create structures to facilitate restitutions and called on institutions in possession of such property to conduct provenance research.<\/p>\n
Several countries, including Cameroon, Tanzania, Ghana and Togo have set up state structures and restitution bodies in response to moves by western museums to return artefacts acquired in the colonial era. These bodies are keen to take up dialogue with a central German authority, yesterday\u2019s statement said.<\/p>\n
Museums in Germany not only acquired items expropriated from the German colonies in Africa, but also\u2014via purchases and gifts\u2014artefacts looted from territories under the rule of other European nations.<\/p>\n
In 2022, the government, states and museums transferred ownership of more than 1,100 Benin bronzes from five museum collections to Nigeria, making Germany the first country to return hundreds of items looted in the British raid on the Kingdom of Benin in 1897. In 2024, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation transferred ownership of 23 objects to Namibia, a former German colony.<\/p>\n