Restitution

'The time of begging for stolen loot is over': Cambridge University master gives UN speech saying tone has shifted in restitution debate

Sonita Alleyne was appointed Master of Jesus College in 2019—the year the institution announced the UK's first repatriation of Benin Bronzes to Nigeria

Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum in talks to send back Parthenon marble pieces to Greece

Greek minister says move gives restitution discussions with British Museum "momentum"

France's long-awaited restitution policy is finally here

Guidelines for returning objects looted from former colonies and during the Nazi period are laid out in a report commissioned by Emmanuel Macron and written by former Louvre director Jean-Luc Martinez

Nigeria transfers ownership of Benin Bronzes to royal ruler—confusing European museums' plans to return artefacts

The move may complicate plans to house the works in future museums such as the Edo Museum of West African Art

Dusseldorf settles with Jewish dealer’s heirs on portrait that hung in mayor's office

Wilhelm von Schadow’s painting 'The Artist’s Children' was once owned by Max Stern, who fled Nazi persecution in the 1930s

Gauguin, Renoir and Cézanne works restituted by Musée d'Orsay head to auction at Sotheby's

Four works recently returned to heirs of the influential French dealer Ambroise Vollard will go under the hammer in New York next month

A major Estonian art collection looted by the Nazis is probably in Belarus, new report finds

With the help of Kyiv archives, a historian has investigated the fate of 5,000 works of art and 20,000 books owned by Julius Genss

Has New York's law aimed at identifying Nazi-looted art in museums worked?

Recent legislation requires institutions to label works they display that was stolen by the Nazis, but some are still unwilling to publish their provenance research

Germans falter on Benin bronzes’ return to Nigeria

Doubts surface in media over Nigeria’s museum infrastructure

Mexiconews

One-tonne statue of Olmec ‘Earth monster’ that was illegally taken to US will be returned to Mexico

Authorities in New York recently informed Mexican officials that the artefact was recovered, though when exactly it was stolen and brought to the United States is unclear

Munich museum takes down Picasso portrait amid restitution dispute

The painting, Madame Soler, was previously owned by the prominent collector Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy in the 1930s

Courbet painting—seized by the Nazis and owned by a reverend—to be returned to its original owners

The forest landscape, La Ronde Enfantine, will be returned by the Fitzwilliam Museum, UK, to the heirs of Robert Bing

Netherlands returns Indigenous remains to Caribbean island Sint Eustatius

The small Dutch Carribean island has recovered bone fragments and artefacts uncovered in a Dutch archaeological dig more than 30 years ago

Denver Art Museum returns donations from associate of antiquities smuggler Douglas Latchford

The museum has issued a statement further distancing itself from the late Emma Bunker, who allegedly falsified provenance for items looted from Cambodia

New York court rules against repatriation of ancient artefact to Turkey

A marble idol known as the “Stargazer” will remain in the collection of billionaire Michael Steinhardt

Vatican returns Parthenon sculptures to Greece in 'historic event'

Restitution shows that a "road of dialogue and peace always exists", according to a representative of the Holy See

Restitutionanalysis

Digital shadows: what happens to an artefact's data after it is restituted?

Museums are stepping up efforts to return physical objects to their original owners—but repatriation policies often do not consider the digital information associated with them

Even restituted artefacts—like Benin bronzes—need export licences from UK, says arts minister

Formal requirement for government licences may well prove to be yet another obstacle to a loan agreement for the Parthenon Marbles

British Museum's chairman suggests 'hybrid' deal with Greece over Parthenon Marbles

"I think there is a way forward where the sculptures could be seen both in London and in Athens, and that will be a win-win for Greece and for us,” George Osborne says

Musée D'Orsay ordered by Paris court to return four masterpieces by Renoir, Cézanne and Gauguin stolen during Second World War

The works were owned by influential French dealer Ambroise Vollard and will be returned to his heirs

Art from persecuted Jewish dealer draws scrutiny at National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC

Findings about the provenance of two Old Master drawings in the museum’s collection may test the pro-restitution stance recently adopted at US national institutions

Restituted Kandinsky painting lost in the Holocaust could sell for $45m

The painting, which was the subject of a decade-long provenance dispute, will go up for sale at Sotheby’s London in March

'New French restitution laws should benefit the market—and maybe force change in Britain too?'

As the Washington Principles turn 25, the complexities of restitution in a global art world have mushroomed—leaving lessons to be learned for institutions, governments and art market players

Christie's marks 25 years of the Washington Principles on Nazi-confiscated art

Auction house kicked off its year-long restitution programme in Paris last week which aims to educate collectors and buyers

Virgin Mary and Christ diptych, stolen during Second World War, returned to Poland

The paintings, from the workshop of the Flemish master Dieric Bouts, were transferred from the Museo Provincial de Pontevedra in Spain to Gołuchów Castle

Was Van Gogh's olive grove landscape another Nazi-era 'forced sale'?

We uncover the tangled tale of the painting controversially sold off by New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1972 and now in an Athens museum

Yayoi Kusama and Louis Vuitton: the enduring allure of art and luxury

Plus, Michael Rakowitz's ambitious restitution plans and Rosy Martin's photographical iconostasis

Hosted by Ben Luke. Produced by David Clack and Aimee Dawson
Sponsored byChristie's

Jewish collectors’ heirs sue the Guggenheim for return of Blue Period Picasso

The heirs of Karl and Rosi Adler claim “Woman Ironing (La repasseuse)” (1904) was sold under duress by the fleeing couple and are seeking its return—or as much as $200m in compensation

No plans to return Berlin's star museum attractions Nefertiti and Pergamon Altar, German official says

Statement comes after Berlin state secretary for diversity and anti-discrimination spoke out in favour of restituting the artefacts to their countries of origin