At the time when the kingdom of Dahomey [the present Benin] was in a state of extermination, 27 objects were stolen from King Béhanzin on 17 November 1892 by soldiers under French colonel Alfred Amédée Dodds. Chairs, statues, royal clubs, altar, palette doors, thrones… More than the theft of Béhanzin’s fortune, they had the symbol of appropriating that African land, as trophies of victory. France had been colonizing the world since the sixteenth century, focusing on this sub-European continent in the nineteenth century.

On 27 July 2016, Benin President Patrice Talon made an official request to France to return stolen money to France. Four years later, a legal reform was carried out to allow such a return – following the law, because these properties are the "non-transferable assets" of France – and 26 of them were returned. Precisely, the Quai Branly museum in Paris lacked one that had in stock and did not know where it was... It was a reflection of the recognition and consideration that the West has for African art. Three years later, she was captured by the insistence and search of Marie-Cécile Zinsou, president of the Zinsou Foundation of Benin, dedicated to contemporary art: In the basement of the national museum in Finland were the famous real Katakle chair, once changed to another artwork. On 4 November they returned to the people of Benin the witness of the past kingdom of Dahomey and the colonization suffered. "Neither the Finns nor the French will miss this object. Imagine, [unknowingly] they had it in reserve. Only we can see the importance and beauty of Katakle's royal chair. We had to recover it because we are talking about the right to have the culture and heritage of each one at hand. It is based on dialogue between continents," says Zinsou.

In 2021, the 26 works were returned to Benin, and the following year Germany had another twenty bronze works in Nigeria, and the Horniman Museum in London, for its part, also 72 others in Nigeria. In the end, the former colonies took into account what the African peoples had asked for for decades: "[Stolen art] was the end of colonial denial" we were in the eyes of historian Bénédicte Savoy.

But, despite the change in attitude, the path from symbolic restitution – and it is not a little, because so far it has not been done – to the actual agreed process can still be long: "The peoples of Africa and African youth have to make their voices heard, because it is not a priority for France, and because no one in France may feel compelled to assume," says Zinsou. 27 of those works, 20 from here and 72 from there, because those numbers are ridiculous as far as the total is concerned: -It's simple: 90% of sub-Saharan cultural heritage is in European collections," says Savoy. Let's imagine that this is 90,000 pieces stolen from Africa in the reserves of the French museums, of which only 70,000 would be at the Quai Branly in Paris, and two-thirds of them "collected" in the 1885-1960's, that is, at the time of colonization. It's about 500,000 works by African colonies in museums across Europe. The basis of these numbers is research by Savoy and the Senegalese writer Felwine Sarre in 2018.

Clearly state the Sarr-Savoy report

As if he tackled the problem of decades with a jet of blood, French President Emmanuel Macron gave them a hopeful speech from the capital of Burkina Faso in 2017: "I cannot accept that much of the cultural heritage of many African countries is in France. There are historical explanations, but there is no valid and unconditional long-term justification." With regard to its style, it gave the Burkinafasians and those of mainland Africa a promise that it would not fulfil: "What I want is for recoveries, temporary or definitive, to be completed within five years." It's been five years. Beautiful words that the wind had taken, again, in the style of Macron!

However, we have in our hands the charismatic Sarr-Savoy report, which was asked by Macron himself. The two researchers consider the works of art violently stolen during colonization, as well as those acquired in the past "at a low price" by merchants, soldiers, missionaries and settlers. Stolen works are also mentioned in the era of colonization, but they have been marketed in the art market since then, but they complicate the issue, because property can be claimed by those who received it in exchange for money.

However, Sarr and Savoy speak with no hair: France must commit itself to "unconditional and definitive return". "It would be the way to establish new cultural relations based on rethought relational ethics." The report calls for "a legal change" in order to give way to "de-escalation". The government began its work in 2023, passing two of the three laws: On property stolen from Jews during World War II and the return of human remains in museum collections. As for the works of art, they had their signature pending by April of this year, but it was not done; it was not delayed until autumn, but it did not happen. The Sarr-Savoy report concludes that the views against
the terrorist organisation’s arguments are not sufficient at this end of the year o.Por. Stéphane Martin, who was the director of the Quai Branly, with over 70,000 objects in his hands, called the research "a cry of resentment against the concept of museum." Among the arguments, the infrastructure of the peoples of Africa and the real scarce artistic interest are often heard. Zinsou does not share this view and also sees a racist touch: "Africa also has the capacity to manage its own heritage. (...) The discourse of the inferiority that has been opened by some people in the West should not be allowed to take place. Not at all. May some be racist and think that Africans, and in our case the benefices, don't know how to take care of heritage, that's a European educational problem."

1965: "Give us back the black art"

In 2025 the manifesto "Return the Black Art" written by the Benemeritus writer Paulin Joachim will be 60 years old in Bingo magazine. In 1978, the director of UNESCO, Senegalese Amadou-Mahtar M’Bow, stated: "The peoples who have suffered these looting (some that happened in the last century) have not only been robbed of memory, which would help them to know themselves better, but also to better understand others."

The journalist Philippe Baqué, Un nouvel or noir, says that this attitude of theft still exists today, as if it were not enough stolen for centuries, and especially during colonization. Le pillage des objects d´art en Afrique. A new black gold. Theft of works of art in Africa] in research. Despite the legal ban and the existence of an international instrument to combat theft, it states that works in Africa do not serve: "Art merchants and collectors can follow their business as well, with a good conscience apparently. They are not asked for anything, and their businesses have never been so good.

And so the works advance in time and in the art market: taking more and more value on the road, in addition to giving little power to those who would like to recover the memory and art of their people, new obstacles are added to it.