Paris: France’s government on Wednesday discussed a bill that would streamline the process of returning artworks and cultural artefacts looted from the country’s former colonies over more than a century of imperial rule. Under current laws, the return of each item in France’s extensive national collection must be voted on individually. The proposed legislation aims to expedite the return of such items to their countries of origin, according to officials.

According to France24.com, if approved, the law would simplify the procedure for repatriating cultural goods in France’s national collection that originated from states deprived of them due to illicit appropriation between 1815 and 1972, as stated by the culture ministry. It will address works acquired through theft, looting, coercive transfers or donations, or from individuals not authorized to dispose of them.

In a notable move in 2021, France returned 26 royal artefacts, including a throne, to Benin. These items were part of the collection of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum in Paris, which holds most of the 90,000 African works estimated to be in French museums, as noted in a report commissioned by French President Emmanuel Macron in 2018.

Since his election in 2017, Macron has been more forthcoming than his predecessors in recognizing past French abuses in Africa. He committed to facilitating the return of African cultural heritage within five years in a speech to students in Burkina Faso shortly after taking office.

Earlier this year, a “talking drum” seized from the Ebrie tribe by French colonial troops in 1916 was returned to Ivory Coast. Furthermore, in 2019, France’s then Prime Minister Edouard Philippe handed over a sword to the Senegalese president believed to belong to the 19th-century West African Islamic scholar and leader, Omar Tall.

Other European nations, like Germany and the Netherlands, have also returned a limited number of artefacts recently. Meanwhile, Britain faces several high-profile claims but has refused to return the Parthenon Marbles to Greece and the Kohinoor diamond to India, two notable examples.

The French draft law is the third and final segment of legislative efforts aimed at accelerating the removal and return of artworks held in France’s national collection. Two other laws, one for returning property looted by the Nazis and another for returning human remains, were approved in 2023.