The Senate with a right-wing majority gave unanimously Wednesday, November 4, after the National Assembly, its green light for the restitution of cultural property in Senegal and Benin, despite criticism of
"the method"
, pointed out as
"a made of the prince ”
.
Read also: Restitution: Benin is asking for time
In order to
"better scientifically supervise"
, in the future, this type of procedure, the Senate introduced in the bill the creation of a
"National Council in charge of considering questions of circulation and return of extra-European cultural goods"
.
However, this initiative is unlikely to flourish in the parliamentary shuttle, the government being opposed to it.
The bill responds to a desire to rebuild cultural relations with Africa expressed by President Emmanuel Macron in November 2017 in Ouagadougou.
The transfer to Benin concerns 26 pieces from the “Trésor de Béhanzin” resulting from the looting of the Abomey palace in 1892. They are today at the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum in Paris.
Senegal must recover a saber and its scabbard attributed to El Hadj Omar Tall, a great West African military and religious figure of the 19th century.
Held by the Musée de l'Armée in Paris, this saber is exhibited in Dakar as part of a long-term loan.
These works
"have become real places of memory,"
said Minister of Culture Roselyne Bachelot, while several speakers underlined their
"strong symbolic charge"
.
The bill
"in no way calls into question the principle of inalienability"
of the collections of French national museums, assured the minister.
Restitution
"is not an act of repentance, but an act of friendship and trust"
towards Benin and Senegal, she said.
Read also: France formalizes the return of works of art in Senegal and Benin
According to Claudine Lepage (PS),
"they can play a major role"
in enabling young people
"to reweave the link with its history and strengthen its identity"
.
For the rapporteur Catherine Morin-Desailly (centrist),
“the approach is founded from an ethical point of view”
.
"What is at issue is the method"
by which
"the political decision prevailed over all forms of debate"
, she added.
The bill
“is content to execute a presidential decision”
, regretted Max Brisson (LR).
"This law of exception being based if not on the fact of the prince, at least on the reason of state, it will call others to the rhythm of the requests which will multiply"
, he noted, calling for defining a frame.
According to Pierre Ouzoulias (CRCE with a communist majority),
"the appropriate legal form should have been an international treaty"
.
It
“would have had the advantage of specifying France's commitments, under development aid”
, for the transport of works or the construction of the facilities that will accommodate them.
At the end of a semantic debate, the Senate replaced the terms
“restitution”
and
“return”
used in the initial text by the terms
“return”
and
“transfer”
.