Repatriation
British Museum proposes new ‘Parthenon partnership’ with Greece in bid to end deadlock over Marbles
Officials will loan the ancient sculptures only if they are returned to London
Oxford and Cambridge universities approve returning 213 looted Benin bronzes to Nigeria
Charity Commission could veto the decision to repatriate objects from Ashmolean Museum and Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
Pope Francis addresses forced assimilation in Canadian tour amid calls for repatriation of Indigenous artefacts from Vatican Museums
Francis delivered a speech in Maskwacis as part of a week-long visit to apologise for the role of the Catholic church in the cultural genocide of Indigenous communities
Copies of the Parthenon Marbles—carved by a robot—to go on show in London
Project by Oxford’s Institute for Digital Archaeology fuels debate about restitution of controversial sculptures
Political pressure and protest at British Museum keeps Parthenon Marbles restitution issue in the spotlight
Clamour grows for reunification as Acropolis Museum in Athens marks 13th anniversary
Artefacts long held by the Smithsonian will go on view at new Mi’ kmaw cultural centre in Nova Scotia
The $50m centre is scheduled to open in 2025 and showcase works on long-term loan from the National Museum of the American Indian
Canadian First Nation calls for portion of controversial $789m museum budget to be spent repatriating Indigenous artefacts
The province’s enormous expenditure to rebuild the Royal British Columbia Museum should include funding repatriation efforts, the Tseshaht First Nation says
Leaked report reveals Harvard holds remains of nearly 7,000 Indigenous and 20 enslaved people
The unfinalised report is being developed by a steering committee formed last year to address repatriation concerns at the Ivy League university
What has happened to France’s grand plans to return Africa's heritage?
Five years ago President Macron took the museum world by surprise when he announced a then-revolutionary restitution plan. Now the country’s politicians are at odds about how to implement it
Britain's Royal Albert Memorial Museum returns artefacts to Siksika First Nation
Exeter museum has held various objects belonging to the 19th-century Blackfoot leader Chief Crowfoot since 1878
Smithsonian adopts new ‘ethical returns policy’ to handle artefacts with problematic histories
The new policy, adopted by all Smithsonian museums on 29 April, will allow each institution to tailor it to their particular collections and provenance considerations
FBI repatriates smuggled artefacts, artworks and other objects to Peru
The returned objects include artefacts from the collection of amateur archaeologist Donald Miller, the subject of a high-profile raid in 2014
Massachusetts museum accused of hoarding Indigenous artefacts and human remains for decades
The Barre Museum is said to hold the largest collection of Lakota objects and human remains from the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre
Stolen Nepalese temple artefacts found at London gallery returned in embassy ceremony
The artefacts, from the 16th and 18th centuries, were discovered in Barakat Gallery and were voluntarily handed over to police
Pre-Columbian stone artefacts smuggled into Puerto Rico are repatriated to the Dominican Republic
The 12 archaeological objects were seized from a passenger arriving in Puerto Rico by ferry in 2013; they had previously sold in an online auction
US revises law governing repatriation of Indigenous remains and burial objects
The effort, conducted in consultation with Native American tribes and nations, would enable greater enforcement of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
The US and Nigeria sign cultural property agreement
The five-year memorandum of understanding comes at a moment when Nigeria is taking increasingly proactive measures to secure its patrimony and recover artefacts that were looted and stolen
UC Berkeley returns Wiyot human remains and burial objects
The university still holds one of the largest collections of Indigenous human remains and sacred objects in the US
US customs agents return ancient cuneiform writing implements to Iraq
The millennia-old prism and tablet were found to lack proper paperwork—one after its owner’s death, the other following an online auction
Indigenous man allegedly fired for refusing to discard bones and artefacts unearthed at Texas construction site
The San Antonio-based chef and site manager was dismissed after being instructed to destroy the discoveries to avoid delaying the renovation of a restaurant
Hamburg shows its Benin artefacts before restituting them to Nigeria
Ethnological museum in the port city has one of Germany's largest collections of Benin treasures
US customs officials return more than 900 stolen artefacts to Mali
The objects, which include vessels and funerary urns, where intercepted in Houston in 2009 then sat in limbo for years
The Met repatriates looted Benin works
Two 16th century brass plaques and a 14th century Ife head have been returned to Nigeria
Petition calls on Christie’s to return sacred Taino artefacts to Indigenous lands
Some artefacts in Christie’s Pre-Columbian Art & Taino Masterworks sale on 10 November in Paris are estimated to sell for up to £250,000
Looted Gilgamesh tablet returned to Iraq
The ancient cuneiform, once fated to be displayed at the Museum of the Bible, was sold by Christie’s for $1.7m to the owners of the arts and crafts chain Hobby Lobby
Report condemns two University of Pennsylvania anthropologists for ‘gross insensitivity’ in handling of human remains from a 1985 police attack
Investigation recommends a review of Penn Museum practices while clearing the two individuals of unethical conduct
'There has been a generational shift': Belgian government to collaborate with Democratic Republic of Congo to return colonial-era loot
Bilateral accord to include projects to conserve, research, and store restituted items
US hands over two stolen ancient lintels to Thailand after retrieving them from the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
Dating from the ninth and tenth centuries, the objects are thought to have been looted from sacred sites in the late 1960s
How a ceremonial shrunken head, held by a US university for decades, was finally returned to Ecuador
A newly published research paper explains the authentication and repatriation process for a tsantsa once housed in Mercer University’s natural history collection
Penn Museum apologises for allowing the use of human remains of Black Philadelphians in an online class
The statement follows a petition condemning the institution and calling for a public investigation