Five activists, arrested Friday at the Musée du Quai Branly where they had torn down a funeral pole to denounce the " dispossession of Africa of its riches ", will be tried at the end of September in the Paris court, we learned from the prosecution on Sunday .
Read also: Five men snatch a funeral pole from the Quai Branly museum to denounce the "dispossession of Africa"
At the end of their police custody, these five men were released on Sunday under judicial supervision after being presented to the prosecution which decided to have them tried before the criminal court for " attempted robbery in meeting of an object classified furniture ”. The group had filmed and then posted online the video of their action on Friday.
We see one of the five men, who presents himself as a national of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, unsealing a 19th century Bari funeral pole, helped by another, before taking him down the halls.
While filmed, the man shouts his criticisms of France: " We have decided to recover what belongs to us ". “ These goods were stolen from us during colonization. We leave with our property, we take it home, "he repeats to the guards who apostrophy and try to detain them, before their arrest by the police.
The Minister of Culture Franck Riester condemned Friday in a statement " with the utmost firmness " these acts " which damage heritage ". He notes that these men " formulated messages of a political nature and disputed the presence of this work, and others, in the French collections. "
" If the debate on the restitution of works from the African continent is perfectly legitimate, it can in no way justify this type of action, " added Mr. Riester.
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" The work does not seem to have undergone any significant deterioration and the museum will take all measures without delay to carry out any required restorations ," said the minister.
The question of the restitution of African works which arrived in French public museums during the colonization is particularly sensitive and controversial. The Quai Branly Museum has the main collection of early African arts.
