The changing landscape of art restitution around the world

Nowadays art restitution is a hotly contested subject in the European world where a big part of the cultural objects from the African region and elsewhere have been housed for years. At the same time, restitution controversies stemming from the Holocaust era continue to develop with a growing number gaining a positive outcome. Even if many of these controversies started decades ago, in 2021 and 2022, an unprecedented number of art restitution cases have been approved making some believe that a new restitution paradigm is unfolding before our very eyes. In this post, we explore the recent traction art restitution has gained in different regions of the world.

What has changed in art restitution during the last few years?

As Alexander Herman shares in his book Restitution. The Return of Cultural Artefacts, a light has begun to shine on art restitution cases across the world due mainly to the recent scrutiny of European museum collections acquired during the colonial period and the renewed attention on the continent’s colonial past. For instance, the first quarter of 2021 saw a proliferation of major announcements of cultural items being returned with nearly 500 pieces being given back to over 11 countries.

Amidst this scenery, what is new is not art restitution by itself but the scale in which it is happening, which has brought to the table ethical questions that art dealers, museums, and auction houses are now asking themselves about their acquisition practices along with an enormous amount of public pressure on the subject. Without a doubt, France’s revolutionary art restitution policies, which are detailed in another post, have influenced the more open-minded and empathetic approach that other regions, such as Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, and Italy are taking.

At the same time, the last few years have also seen a resurgence in the resolution of restitution controversies surrounding works looted from or sold under duress by Jewish individuals and families during the Holocaust. Importantly, as explained in this New York Times article, the ongoing return of Nazi-looted art has helped put the issue of restitution on the cultural stage which has helped politicians set a legal precedent for many other art cases taking place around the world. Considering all of these developments some argue that a new restitution paradigm is unfolding. In Alexander Herman’s words: “It is a movement – if we can call it that – that seeks to recognize and reaffirm the indelible link between a cultural object and its point of origin. The recognition of that link may be part of the larger trend that today seeks to make amends for past injustices.”

To illustrate some of these developments, below are some of the most recent art restitution cases involving invaluable objects from diverse origins. At the same time, we provide examples of art exhibitions tackling art restitution today as they further reflect the resonance of these issues.

The Benin Bronzes: restitution efforts and controversies

In 2021 and 2022 there were a lot of developments in regards to the return of the Benin bronzes housed in hundreds of museums and collections in the West. As this New York Times article explains, the name Benin Bronzes is used to describe a wide variety of artifacts ranging from brass plaques, carved elephant tusks, ivory leopard statues, and wooden heads that were acquired as spoils of war during the British Army’s 1897 raid on the ancient Kingdom of Benin in present-day Nigeria.

France is a pioneer in the restitution of these objects when in 2017, President Macron promised the return of many African cultural objects to their owners. As a result of this initiative, 26 pieces from Benin, previously on show at the Musee du Quai Branly in Paris, were returned to modern Benin in 2021. Next to France’s efforts, in 2021, German authorities also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments setting a timetable for the return of around 1,100 Beninese sculptures housed in German museums to Nigeria as well, reported The Guardian in the following article.

Alongside Europe, different museums in the United States have also agreed to give their Benin bronzes back. For instance, in March 2022, the Smithsonian, in Washington D.C, agreed to return its full collection of 39 Benin Kingdom Court-Style artifacts to Nigeria. This move came after the head of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art, Ngaire Blankenberg, said that she had removed its Benin Bronzes from display at the museum, noted this New York Times article. Some of the artworks may eventually be displayed at a museum in Benin City but others will likely return to or remain in Washington on a long-term loan from Nigeria.

Next to the Smithsonian, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in NYC, has also announced that it would return two Benin brass plaques that it had acquired while brokering the return of a third object that had been offered to the museum for sale, stated the following New York Times editorial. Many of these works are to be displayed at the planned Edo Museum of West African Art in Benin City, which is being designed by architect David Adjaye. The museum plans to open in 2025, however, the timeline has been delayed several times.

Importantly, not all countries have the same disposition to give these objects back. For example, the UK, which holds a great number of Benin bronzes in the British Museum, has only hinted at the possibility of considering loans to its owners. This is explained, in part, because the British Museum and other national institutions are prevented from permanently returning items due to the British Museum Act of 1963 and the Heritage Act of 1983. In this way, next to the Benin Bronzes, British authorities have been unable to return Greece’s Elgin Marbles, Ethiopia’s Magdala treasures, and many other items involved in restitution cases.

Two examples of recent high-profile restitutions of Holocaust-related artworks

1) A Kandinsky painting returned to the heirs of its Jewish owners

Recently, the city of Amsterdam returned Painting with Houses (Bild mit Häusern), a 1909 painting by Wassily Kandinsky to the heirs of a Jewish couple who had sold it at an auction (well below the market price) in 1940 as they attempted to escape the Netherlands after the Nazi invasion. Since 1940, the painting has been housed at the Stedelijk Museum, which is responsible for the city of Amsterdam’s art collection. As explained in this article, the descendants of the owner of the painting first took the matter to court in 2013. Initially, the panel found that the Stedelijk could keep the painting but that decision was overturned by a Dutch court and, ultimately, a different panel decided to give the painting back to the descendants. The painting is now estimated to be worth around 20 million euros. The heirs' representative, James Palmer, president of Mondex Corporation, said to Le Quotidien de L’art that he is investigating the return of Das Bunte Leben, 1907, another Kandinsky painting once owned by the family.

2) France agrees to return 15 looted masterpieces sold under duress or looted by the Nazis

In January 2022, France finalized talks that led to the restitution of 15 artworks sold under duress or looted by the Nazis, including paintings by Gustav Klimt and Marc Chagall. Artnews reported among the masterpieces was a painting by Chagall, titled The Father, which was looted from David Cender, a Polish Jewish musician and luthier, who arrived in France in 1958. Another of the restituted pieces was Klimt’s Rosiers sous les arbres (Roses Under the Trees), ca. 1905, which had adorned the walls of the Musée d'Orsay. The work was owned by Nora Stiasny, an Austrian-Jewish woman who inherited the painting upon the death of her uncle, the Austrian industrialist, and art collector Viktor Zuckerkandl, in 1927. However, Stiasny was forced to sell the painting following the Nazi’s annexation of Austria in 1938.

These restitution cases are just a part of a larger campaign by France to identify objects in its national collection looted between 1933 and 1945. The initiative has illustrated, among many other things, the complexities of tracking down the provenance of masterpieces during a period of frequent looting and illicit dealing.

The rise of art exhibitions dealing with art restitution

Next to the changes in art restitution policies, since the early 2000s, there has been a rising number of large-scale art exhibitions dealing with this subject. Some have a historical approach, while others add pressure to the return of looted artifacts. Most of these exhibitions have dealt with Holocaust-related cases. To name a few, the exhibition, Reclaimed: Paintings from the Collection of Jacques Goudstikker (The Jewish Museum, NYC, 2009), commemorated the story of a restitution case that took place in 2006, when the family of Goudstikker, a Jewish art dealer and collector, successfully reclaimed 200 artworks from the Dutch government. Another important exhibition was Gurlitt: Status Report (2017-2018), a two-part blockbuster showcasing 450 of the most valuable artworks seized from the apartment of Cornelius Gurlitt, the reclusive son of a Nazi-Era dealer in 2013.

Most recently, as shared in this Hyperallergic article, the exhibition Afterlives: Recovering the Lost Stories of Looted Art featured at the Jewish Museum, explored the processes, documents, spaces, and characters involved in art restitution during and after WWII. With a more critical angle in mind and covering the African region, in 2021, the exhibition Invisible Inventories presented at Nairobi’s National Museum displayed empty glass cases as a means of demanding European countries return looted artifacts belonging to Kenya. Interestingly, when the same exhibition traveled to Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum, in Cologne, Germany, the empty glass cases were filled with 82 Kenyan objects acquired by the museum between 1956 and 2006.

All in all, there is still a long way to go in terms of art restitution but certainly, the last two years have brought about immense pressure on countries refusing to give back objects acquired through controversial means. This pressure has paved the way for expedited changes that have decreased the amount of time it has taken to handle these issues. While art restitution does not erase or repair the past, it acknowledges it and contributes to creating a more equitable environment for all those involved. In Awuor Onyango’s words: “Restitution isn’t just returning objects, relearning cultural identities, reshaping voids, loss, shame, and violence, it is re-engaging with what’s possible.”