Restitution

France simplifies law on restitution of human remains

The prime minister can now approve the return of remains of up to 500 years old, without having to pass a special law

Twenty-five years later, landmark Nazi loot rules still shape restitution fights

The Washington Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art, released on 3 December 1998, are non-binding but nevertheless continue to enable the pursuit of justice

Antiquities worth $1m, including a piece tied to trafficker Subhash Kapoor, returned to Nepal

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office linked one of the works to Kapoor; another had been in the Rubin Museum’s collection

Diaryblog

British Museum ends the year as the butt of the joke

The annual Christmas cracker joke competition by the British TV channel Gold took a swipe at the theft scandal that rocked the institution

Museums and heritage in 2023: War, theft and quakes

From the theft of artefacts at the British Museum to a hammer attack on Velázquez’s “The Rokeby Venus”

Parthenon Marbles row deepens after Rishi Sunak cancels meeting with Greek prime minister

The snub comes after Kyriakos Mitsotakis raised restitution issue with Labour leader Keir Starmer

Swiss government approves panel to assess claims for art acquired in Nazi and colonial eras

New panel is to find “fair and just solutions” for disputed works in museums

Can location-specific digital technologies help to resolve debates on restitution?

Many believe new applications—from AI and NFTs to 3D scanning—are game changing in returning objects to source communities. Lawyers say they can make the process harder

Jewish cabaret artist’s heirs file suit for return of 12 works by Schiele

Vienna museums sued for return of works held by collector murdered in Dachau

Bavaria recovers a Baroque painting with help from the FBI

The landscape was in the possession of the family of an American soldier who had served in post-war Germany

Dutch dealer returns Weenix landscape stolen in the Second World War to Dresden museum

The painting, acquired by Augustus III, hung in a Soviet general’s home after the war

What will German monasteries do with colonial-era objects in their collections?

Wide-ranging nationwide survey will catalogue artefacts held by monasteries and convents that were collected by missionaries in Africa, Asia and South America

Egon Schiele works recently restituted to Holocaust victim's heirs head to auction

Christie’s will offer six of the seven pieces by Schiele that were restituted to heirs of Fritz Grünbaum last month during its November sales in New York

Booksreview

Contested prospect: two new books see the Parthenon through the eyes of a legal expert and a lifelong scholar of Greek history

The great temple to Athena has emerged from the vicissitudes of earthquakes, war, looting and rebuilding to be caught up in a monumental restitution debate

After-shock: why the Parthenon Marbles negotiations must continue

Discussions about the return of the ancient Greek artefacts have likely slipped down the British Museum's list of priorities. Here, Alexander Herman, the author of a just-published book on the subject, tells us why the museum can ill afford to neglect the matter for long

Diaryblog

Escape from the British Museum—tale of a teapot returning to China goes viral

Two social media influencers—Pancake Fruit and Summer Sister—are behind the series posted on Douyin

California museum returns nearly 1,300 pre-Columbian artefacts to Mexico

The repatriation ceremony at the San Bernardino County Museum was timed to coincide with the beginning of Hispanic Heritage Month in the US and Mexican Independence Day

US authorities return seven Schiele works to heirs of cabaret performer murdered by the Nazis

The seven drawings, seized from public and private collections throughout the US, are collectively valued at nearly $10m

The Met and Yemeni government reach agreement for long-term display and care of two ancient sculptures

The artefacts, dating from the third millenium BC, will remain in New York as Yemen’s civil war drags on

German culture minister promises new powers for Nazi-looted art panel

Claudia Roth says the commission’s current mandate is “inadequate” and “we are not living up to our responsibilities"

Allegedly Nazi-looted Egon Schiele works valued at nearly $4m are seized at US museums

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office ordered the seizure of works at the Art Institute of Chicago, Carnegie Museums and Allen Memorial Art Museum

German Nazi-looted art panel calls for more powers and a new law

The advisory commission said it sees the current framework as “unsatisfactory” and “in need of an urgent overhaul”

'The last remaining argument against restitution has now been lost'

To make the British Museum fit for the 21st century it must create a comprehensive publicly accessible database of its entire collection, argues Dan Hicks, curator at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford

Parthenon Marbles deal still on the table despite British Museum theft scandal

Other Greek treasures would come to London in exchange for a loan of the contested sculptures

Barrister Hannatu Musawa is appointed Nigeria's culture minister

The lawyer and activist may play a key role in negotiating the return of Benin bronzes

Dresden museum returns four objects to Australia’s Kaurna community

The spear, digging stick, cudgel and net were brought home by German missionaries nearly 200 years ago

Officials from three countries have called on Denver Art Museum to return eight artefacts in its collection

Six of the eight allegedly looted objects were donated to the museum by Emma C. Bunker, an associate of smuggler Douglas Latchford