Newsletter 09/25 - Increase in requests for repatriation and restitution

Following the announcement that the Government of the Netherlands wants to redress an injustice by returning cultural heritage objects stolen during the colonial era to the country of origin in 2022 the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands published guidelines for cultural goods from a colonial context with the restitution on July 10, 2023 of 472 objects to Indonesia and 6 objects to Sri Lanka, on September 20, 2024 of 288 objects to Indonesia and on June 21, 2025 of 119 “Benin Bronzes” to Nigeria.

Following the Joint Declaration on the restitution of the “Benin Bronzes” on December 21, 2022 Germany returned the first 22 objects to Nigeria, on June 11, 2023 returned the remains of more than 100 Māori and Moriori ancestors to New Zealand, while a “first wave” of restitution of Cameroon’s cultural heritage has been announced for September 2025, although the Federal Government continues to lack a comprehensive action plan.

Following the approval of the law on the restitution and return of assets linked to colonization belonging to the federal museum collections of Belgium in July 2022 the Royal Museum of Central Africa in Tervuren launched the PROCHE project (Recherches de PROvenance sur la Collection ethnographique – Herkomstonderzoek op de Ethografische collectie) which now allows online consultation of the inventory of about 84,000 objects of mainly Congolese origin currently present in the museum's collections ahead of their restitution.

Pressure then continues to grow for the repatriation of the remains and the definitive restitution of all the treasures looted by former colonizers with requests from Algeria, Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Chile, China, Colombia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Guinea, India, Iran, Mozambique, New Zealand, Nigeria, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, the African Union and the United Nations.

With what is happening even France, which so far despite promises has returned only some of the tens of thousands of looted treasures, could be forced to approve a framework law that allows definitive restitutions, while the United Kingdom is resisting to the bitter end, despite its enormous responsibilities, denying the evidence and remaining deaf to requests.

Colonialism Reparation asks the repatriation of the remains and the definitive restitution of the treasures looted by former colonizers (United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, etc.) as a first step in the direction of the Reparation of the damages of colonialism, stopping to hinder an inevitable passage of human evolution.