# Colonial Restitution Is a Different Legal Problem > The Sarr-Savoy report and the Benin Bronzes turn on museum-constitution law, not on stolen-goods law. That is why France had to pass a statute and the British Museum cannot transfer title. > The Study - 2026-08-02 > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/study/colonial-restitution-is-a-different-legal-problem/ ## Key points - France could not return the Abomey objects under general law: LOI n. 2020-1673 of 24 December 2020 had to derogate expressly from the inalienability of public collections, and gave the administration one year to transfer them. - Germany transferred ownership of 1,130 Benin objects held across five museums, the Berlin transfer of 512 items taking effect on 25 August 2022, with roughly a third staying in Berlin on a ten-year loan. - A Nigerian presidential declaration of 23 March 2023 vested ownership and custody of repatriated Benin artefacts in the Oba of Benin to the exclusion of any other person or institution, unsettling museum negotiations with the National Commission for Museums and Monuments. - Section 5 of the British Museum Act 1963 permits disposal only of duplicates, certain post-1850 printed matter and objects damaged beyond usefulness, which is why the museum's roughly nine hundred Benin pieces can be lent and not given. ## Ouagadougou, and the report that followed ## The obstacle was the museum's constitution, not the law of theft ## Benin, 1897, and the German transfer ## Then Nigeria changed the counterparty ## Four reasons the Nazi-era analogy will not carry the weight put on it The colonial restitution debate is usually staged as a moral argument and settled as an administrative one. Germany transferred title to 1,130 Benin objects without a tribunal, a claims process or a finding of unlawful holding, because two governments decided to. France returned twenty-six objects only after parliament disapplied a principle of public property law for those objects by name. The British Museum, holding a comparable collection with a comparable history, is bound by a 1963 statute that never contemplated the question. The decisive variable is not the strength of the historical case, which in the Benin instance nobody contests. It is what the holding institution is legally permitted to do, and who has the authority to change that. ## Questions **Why did France need a special law to return twenty-six objects?** Because French public collections are inalienable under article L.451-5 of the code du patrimoine. LOI n. 2020-1673 of 24 December 2020 derogates from that principle expressly, in two articles covering the Abomey objects and the sabre attributed to El Hadj Omar Tall, and sets a one-year deadline for the transfer. There was no general power to do it. **Can the British Museum return the Benin Bronzes it holds?** Not by transferring ownership, on the face of the statute. Section 5 of the British Museum Act 1963 allows disposal only of duplicates, of certain post-1850 printed matter of which a photographic copy is held, and of objects unfit to be retained or damaged beyond usefulness. Loans remain available, and the museum holds roughly nine hundred Benin pieces. **Who owns the Benin objects Germany transferred?** Ownership passed to Nigeria under the agreement signed on 1 July 2022, the Berlin transfer of 512 objects taking effect on 25 August 2022. On 23 March 2023 a Nigerian presidential declaration vested ownership and custody of repatriated Benin artefacts in the Oba of Benin to the exclusion of any other person or institution. The internal Nigerian arrangements have been reported as unsettled. **Is there a colonial-era equivalent of the Washington Principles?** No. There is no agreed international instrument, no network of national commissions and no arbitral mechanism for colonial-era claims. Germany's Court of Arbitration is confined to Nazi-era losses between 30 January 1933 and 8 May 1945. Switzerland's 2024 committee does include a colonial mandate but issues non-binding recommendations only where both parties agree to proceed. ## Sources - [1] Elysee, 'Submission of the Savoy/Sarr report on the restitution of African heritage', 23 November 2018 (Ouagadougou commitment; immediate return of 26 Abomey objects; instructions to museums). - [2] Wikipedia, 'Report on the restitution of African cultural heritage' (tertiary source, used only for the report's summarised statistics and recommendations; replace with the primary text of Sarr and Savoy, 2018, before relying on the figures). - [3] Legifrance, LOI n. 2020-1673 du 24 decembre 2020 relative a la restitution de biens culturels a la Republique du Benin et a la Republique du Senegal (articles 1 and 2; derogation from article L.451-5 of the code du patrimoine; one-year deadline). - [4] British Museum Act 1963, section 5 (disposal of objects), legislation.gov.uk. - [5] Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 'Return of Benin Bronzes from the Ethnologisches Museum' (512 objects transferred 25 August 2022; roughly a third retained on ten-year loan; acquisition after the 1897 punitive expedition). - [6] The Art Newspaper, 'The Benin Bronzes are returning home: Germany and Nigeria sign historic restitution agreement', 4 July 2022 (agreement of 1 July 2022; 1,130 objects across five museums; British Museum holdings and the 1963 Act). - [7] The Art Newspaper, 'Nigeria transfers ownership of Benin Bronzes to royal ruler', 26 April 2023 (presidential declaration of 23 March 2023; response of the National Commission for Museums and Monuments). - [8] Koch Boes Rechtsanwaelte, 'Germany's New Arbitration Court for Nazi-Looted Cultural Property: Key Procedural Features' (temporal and territorial scope of the German mechanism). - [9] Center for Art Law, 'Navigating New Grounds on the Nazi-Looted Art Restitution Field: Swiss Commission and German Arbitration Tribunal' (Swiss committee's colonial mandate; non-binding recommendations; bilateral referral).