Objectives:
The 2021 Draft Law on Restitution aimed to enable returns without individual parliamentary approval for each case. The 2021 draft law and the 2023 Martinez Report sought to create a more efficient, general legal pathway for restitution, moving away from requiring a new parliamentary law for each individual case. However, the 2023 Martinez report titled “Shared heritage: universality, restitution and circulation of works of art” was postponed, representing France’s broader restitution framework.
Restitution Measures:
Restitution measures include nine criteria for restituting African works, including state origin requirements and bilateral agreement considerations Member Countries.The Martinez report recommends wide-reaching doctrines for cultural heritage, human remains, and Nazi-looted objects.
Framework Limitations:
Limitations persist due to French laws declaring national collections “inalienable and imprescriptible,” requiring exceptional legislation for each restitution case and maintaining restrictive criteria for returns. The draft law was not adopted. The French government shelved the proposal in 2023 following internal opposition, particularly from major museum directors. The core limitation remains unchanged: France’s Code du Patrimoine, which declares national collections “inalienable,” is still the governing law. This continues to necessitate a bespoke “law of exception” (like the 2020 law) for each and every restitution, leaving no general framework in place. The Martinez Report is a set of non-binding recommendations.
