The MNHA in 2022 hosted an exhibition on Luxembourg’s colonial past, which included items gifted to the country by German cartographer Albert Spring in 1896. Spring looted a number of artefacts in German East Africa, today’s Tanzania.

“The MNHA wrote to the national museum in Dar-es-Salam on 6 January 2022 to inform them of the existence of this collection,” said Régis Moes, who curated the exhibition. “The director until now has simply told us that his services would study the matter and get back to us. We are still waiting for an answer.”

Western museums have come under increasing pressure to return pieces of art to their countries of origin, especially when these were looted, stolen or gained through other dubious means during the colonisation of Africa and Asia.

Germany at the end of last year returned 21 Benin bronzes to Nigeria. The Horniman museum in London returned six artefacts and the University of Cambridge has pledged to return more than 100 bronzes. But other institutions, such as the British Museum, have resisted calls for restitution.

“Luxembourg has no comparably valuable objects in its public collections, neither in terms of nobility of material nor their artistic merit or symbolic significance,” said Moes. The MNHA’s collection of objects from Africa consists largely of weapons, carved ivory, some items of furniture, jewellery and masks. The majority was acquired after 1945 and donated or sold to the museum.

Online platform

“Our research has shown that we cannot declare any other objects directly as looted goods based on the sources that we currently have access to and the information we have been able to find,” Moes said. He believes a majority were bought as more or less mass-produced wares aimed for the European market.

Because provenance cannot always be established, the MNHA is planning on making all objects viewable via an online platform, “so that everyone can look at these items and possibly make a request.”

The government supports the restitution of artefacts, although for Luxembourg comparatively little is at stake.

French president Emmanuel Macron in 2017 said he would like to see conditions met within the next five years to return Africa’s cultural heritage to the continent. A 2018 report recommended the return of objects that were taken by force or presumed to have been acquired under unfair conditions.

But little progress has been made so far, with only 28 objects returned to Senegal, Benin and Madagascar, including one item on loan. France’s museums hold some 90,000 African works.