Macron returns African art
Emmanuel Macron promised to bring back African cultural heritage within 5 years. Forever or temporarily. “It cannot be that Africans must visit European museums to see their own cultural heritage.”
Benin is a country that asked in 2016 to return its art treasures that were taken by the French General Alfred Dodds at the end of the 19th century. Or “donated by general Dodds” as a French museum ‘s signs still show.
Macron promised to have a plan for returning those arts to Benin before November this year. Some call it revolutionary. And for sure it will have consequences for French museums and any other European museum with great African art collections.
Some Europeans in the art scene don’t believe African countries will take good care of its heritage, because it needs money and preservation methods.
Marie-Cécile Zinsou, a young art historian with French and Benin roots: “So how come that those stolen arts were already 200 years old, when stolen by France?”
Read all: Macron doorbreekt taboe op teruggave Afrikaanse kunst
