|
There are no statistics but official claims for restitution from Africa, Asia or Latin America are known for fewer than 100 objects.
The view beyond Nefertiti to some of her "companions" is intended to show how different and complex individual cases can be: Each claim for restitution of a cultural asset must be judged in its own right. Nevertheless there are parallels - in particular in the history of the way these cultural assets were brought to Europe, and also in the current attitudes to their ownership.
The great majority of the African, Asian, Latin American and Pacific Island art reached Europe in the context of conquests and colonisation of these countries. In order to establish and maintain the desired power structure in the conquered countries, oppression, armed conflicts and expropriation were commonplace. Over centuries, the colonial rulers allowed European researchers, colonial administrators and adventurers to bring back from all over the world to Europe a huge number of art works and cultural objects from the former colonies and adjacent territories, and it is hardly possible to estimate the amount of objects concerned.
Today this trend is continued in the illegal trading in art works and antiquities from outside Europe. These are destined not only for private ownership but also for museums - and this leads to an increase in the plundering of countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
UNESCO estimates that between 20 and 30 million cultural assets of collector value from outside Europe are to be found in European museums. The whole collections of art and cultural objects from overseas are thus many times greater than those remaining in their countries of origin. In some regions there are no examples of certain items at all. Others have most of their cultural heritage in their own country but are missing certain significant pieces. And so 40 years after most colonies gained their independence it is possible to say: European museums or states are faced with far fewer claims for restitution that might be expected.
The claims of Italy against the great US American art concerns Getty and Metropolitan or Greece's battle for the return of the "Elgin-Marbles" have received much publicity, but the claims of African countries, for example, are far less well known.
Nevertheless there is some good news here and there. The UNESCO Committee which supports countries in disputed claims for restitution is currently working on the claim of Tanzania against Switzerland for the return of a Makonde mask. The outcome of the negotiations is still unclear, but official two-party negotiations are in progress: a first important step usually avoided by the European museums and governments.
Ethiopia has just received the so-called "Axum-Obelisk" back, stolen by Mussolini in the Second World War. However, it did take several decades to get the Italian side to fulfil the contractually agreed return which dated from 1945.
In Vienna the Green Party has lodged a Parliamentary question calling for the return to Mexico of the "Penacho of Montezuma" as a gesture of friendship.
The four examples on the following pages show how different these individual cases are: each cultural asset has its own history. However, this should really not prevent fair political solutions from being found for the few existing claims for restitution.
|
