The restitution of knowledge: returning African colonial artefacts and decolonizing European museums. An international law perspective.

The near-monopoly that Western museums have over the possession of the Global South’s cultural heritage represents one of the continuities between the age of colonialism and our time. The common argument of former colonial powers is that, although morally appalling, colonialism was not illegal according to the standards of the time. This leaves unanswered questions regarding possible forms of accountability and the degree of legal responsibility of present-day European states. RestArt challenges this common argument by hypothesizing that at least a part of the colonial practices of domination by Western states was illegal during colonial time. It focuses on the return of African colonial artefacts as a form of redress and relation-building process between the Global South and former colonial states. It innovatively identifies and addresses important gaps in our knowledge by conducting an interdisciplinary investigation into the status of cultural colonial objects held in European museums under international law, analyses recent legal developments in European states and unpacks the legal requests of repatriation of African cultural heritage. RestArt will incorporate and interrogate the legal stance of the communities of origin of colonial artefacts -and especially female voices- on the restitution of cultural colonial objects, an aspect of absolute novelty in the current discourse. RestArt also aims at presenting policy-oriented guidelines to European States and EU institutions to deal with the return of colonial cultural objects. The project will be supervised by Prof. Valérie Rosoux, an international authority in disciplines relating to the legacies of colonialism. Through the training program, the candidate will qualify as a researcher at the intersection of law, political science and post-colonial studies enriching his profile through interdisciplinary research.