Revised Guidelines On Colonial Collections: Germany Not Advanced With Restitution Of Looted African Artefacts

Title: Revised Guidelines On Colonial Collections: Germany Not Advanced With Restitution Of Looted African Artefacts
Author: Dr. Kwame Opoku
Media Outlet: Modern Ghana
Publish Date: July 28, 2019

“(…) Instead of being an instrument for aiding restitution, provenance research has become independent of restitution and risks dominating restitution which it may well postpone. The Guidelines declare that restitution should not be an end in itself, but they make provenance research an end in itself.

These Guidelines which have undergone a second revision after a year of publication may again undergo another revision. Meanwhile Africans will be waiting for concrete restitutions whilst the scholars keep us busy with their provenance research and revisions of Guidelines. One wonders what German institutions were doing in the last hundred years.”