Is 2023 the Year Looted Art Returns Home?
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Repatriation, and restitution, will be the big headline in the art world in 2023.
In France, politicians proposed three laws aimed at speeding up the process, addressing the return of human remains in museum collections, art belonging to Jewish families during World War II, and restitution of art from the colonial era. "I hope 2023 will be a year of decisive progress for restitutions," French culture minister Rima Abdul Malak said in a speech, per ARTNews.
In Poland, culture minister Piotr Gliński launched an "Empty Frames" campaign last year, to bring attention to stolen artwork from the country, and it remains a priority this year. "In all, we're now carrying out 130 restitution processes in more than 10 countries around the world," Gliński said in a press conference in mid-January. In Nigeria, there's the ongoing campaigns for the return of the Benin Bronzes, artifacts mainly connected to a a British raid on Benin City in 1897.
"Unless there is clear evidence an artifact was acquired illegally, repatriation is largely at the discretion of museums," Sean Elder writes in Town & Country's February 2023 issue. Even then, they may not have the final word. Members of the British government, for example, were quick to point out this winter that, under current statute, it is forbidden for the British Museum to break up its collection of Greek antiquities. But the movement for returning appropriated antiquities is having a moment at big institutions."
It's not just art getting repatriated from museums, however—it's also the remains of people. In the United States, Native American communities are bringing increased attention on the remains of their ancestors still held in museums around the country. An investigation by ProPublica published in January 2023 found institutions in America that still hold Native American remains that have not been returned to tribes, despite the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act that was passed in 1990.
In addition, repatriation isn't just for political entities; the descendants of Holocaust survivors and victims have continued to sue for the ownership of art stolen from their ancestors. In January 2023 alone, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art and the Guggenheim have been sued by Jewish families.
In this timeline, Town & Country will document repatriation news in 2023—covering stolen antiquities, war crimes, and disputed archeological finds. Repatriated objects and artwork can originate from a wide variety of sources, ranging from private collections to national museums. In addition, repatriation doesn't just mean returning to a country—it can be artwork returning to families, or remains returning to ancestral burial grounds. We will be updating this timeline throughout the year.
January
January 2: A wooden sarcophagus, featured at the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences, was returned to Egypt (pictured above) after U.S. authorities determined it was looted from Abu Sir Necropolis (near Cairo) and smuggled into the United States in 2008.
January 5: An Iron Age ivory cosmetic spoon, found in the collection of billionaire antiquities collector Michael Steinhardt, was repatriated to the Palestinian Authority. The spoon was reportedly looted from the Khirbet al-Koum area in Hebron, a Palestinian city in the West Bank. "It is the first ever event of such repatriation from the United States to the Palestinian Authority in history," the U.S. Office of Palestinian Affairs said in a statement.
January 23: New York County district attorney's office returned 60 antiquities from Italy in a repatriation valued around $20 million. The statues, vases, bronzes, and other pieces of art—including a fresco depicting Hercules—were found in museums and the homes of private collectors. They will go on display at the Museo dell'Arte Salvata (Museum of Rescued Art) in Rome.
January 24: Harvard University's Peabody Museum and Warren Anatomical Museum finished repatriated the remains of 313 Indigenous people from eastern Massachusetts to Wampanoag communities.
January 25: Spain repatriated two Flemish paintings created in the Dieric Bouts shop to Poland. The paintings were looted by the Nazis from a Polish noble family during World War II, ad found in a museum in western Spain in 2019.
January 26: An Australian citizen returned nine Buddha statues to Thailand that had been in his family since 1911. According to the Bangkok Post, the return is part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Fine Arts Department's mission to repatriate Thai antiquities.
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