Macron announced during a meeting with Benin President Patrice Talon that the looted artifacts will be returned to Benin at the end of October.
Benin demanded the return of artworks from the so-called “Behanzen Treasury” looted in 1892.
The decision followed a report by scientists Benedict Savoy of the College de France and Floyn Sarr of Saint-Louis University in Senegal. Both specialists have proposed recovering tens of thousands of primitive artworks stolen in sub-Saharan Africa during colonialism.
In December 2020, the French Parliament approved the return to Benin of 26 works, currently stored in the Quai Branly Jacques Chirac Museum in Paris.
The return of artworks stolen from Africa is one of the most important points of the “new relations” that President Macron intends to establish with African countries, according to AFP.
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