#Restitutions: Legislating to make amends
While the restitution of works of art and cultural property meets a moral and historical requirement, the legal framework surrounding it remains incomplete and often conflicting. Most of the objects concerned were acquired in contexts of colonial domination or unequal exchanges, at a time when there were no international standards on cultural property. Between principles of inalienability, the absence of binding standards and ad hoc legislative initiatives, the law still struggles to meet the demand for historical justice that restitution represents.
The UNESCO (1970) and UNIDROIT (1995) conventions laid essential foundations for combating illicit trafficking and promoting the return of cultural property, but their scope remains limited. As they are not retroactive, they do not apply to past spoliations, and the absence of a binding framework leaves States with a wide margin of discretion, leading to diplomatic solutions on a case-by-case basis.
Several proposals for framework laws have emerged to clarify restitution procedures, strengthen bilateral cooperation and place these efforts within a context of historical reparation. In France, where public collections are imprescriptible and inalienable, recent restitutions have required ad hoc laws, highlighting the urgent need for a general framework that guarantees transparency and consistency.
Rima Abdul Malak, former Minister of Culture, who initiated the 2023 bill on African cultural property, human remains and cultural property looted in the context of anti-Semitic persecution between 1900 and 1945, and Vincent Négri, HDR researcher at the Institute for Social Sciences of Politics, will come together for this second meeting in the series. During this conversation, they will explore the challenges of legislation on the restitution of African cultural property, the right to memory and cultural reappropriation, in the service of historical justice and sustainable intercultural dialogue.
The talk will be moderated by the journalist Valérie Nivelon (RFI).
Franco-Lebanese Rima Abdul Malak began her career in humanitarian work with CCFD-Terre Solidaire, then with the association Clowns sans frontières. She then moved into cultural cooperation at the Institut français, where she was responsible for promoting French music internationally. She joined the Paris City Council in 2008, first in the office of the Deputy Mayor for Culture, then as cultural advisor to Bertrand Delanoë. She was then appointed cultural attaché at the French Embassy in New York, where she worked to strengthen artistic exchanges between France and the United States. On her return in 2019, she became cultural advisor to Emmanuel Macron and played a key role during the Covid crisis. From 2022 to 2024, she was Minister of Culture in Elisabeth Borne's government. Her term in office was marked by the opening of the Cité internationale de la langue française in Villers-Cotterêts, the reconstruction of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, a national plan for the arts and crafts, two major laws on restitution, the taxation of streaming platforms to support the music industry, the resolute defence of public broadcasting, and the La Relève initiative to renew the pool of future cultural leaders. She is now based in Beirut, where she heads L'Orient-Le Jour, a major French-language Lebanese daily newspaper and the only fully independent media outlet in the Middle East.
#Restitutions. Another definition of the world
A series of talks conceived in collaboration with Valérie Nivelon (initiator of the Africaines Queens podcast and the La Marche du monde radio show on RFI), who will moderate the discussions.
On 7 June 1978, Amadou Mahtar Mbow — the first African Director-General of UNESCO — issued a “solemn appeal” to governments, cultural institutions, museums, libraries, historians, and artists, calling for the return of cultural property to its country of origin. Nearly fifty years after this seminal appeal, what is the current state of the debate on restitution?
The series Restitutions. Another Definition of the World offers a platform for reflection and dialogue on the challenges surrounding the restitution of works of art and cultural property acquired in contexts of violence and domination. It also addresses the related issues of memory, justice, and the circulation of heritage that these processes raise. Between April 2026 and the end of 2027, FMSH will organise six discussions exploring this complex reality at the intersection of history, law, diplomacy, and ethics.
By bringing together researchers, lawyers, collection managers, archivists, and cultural and institutional stakeholders, the series seeks to shed light on these issues and to encourage fairer, more collaborative, and more sustainable restitution practices.
Series "#Restitutions. Another definition of the world"
Tuesday 16 June 2026
7 pm - 9 pm
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FMSH
54 boulevard Raspail
Paris 6
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PARTNER
A Father and a Sperm Donor
Film screening: "One by One"
Agricultural Service Reports Compared with Colonial Economic Bulletins (1890–1960)
