Guidelines for returning objects looted from former colonies and during the Nazi period are laid out in a report commissioned by Emmanuel Macron and written by former Louvre director Jean-Luc Martinez

The full story of colonial plundering lies not in museum displays but in unopened, uncatalogued boxes in store rooms

Senate approves bill to return 27 colonial-era artefacts from museum collections to Africa within one year

Bénédicte Savoy—co-author of the Sarr-Savoy report that recommends France return its African artefacts—warns of "collective amnesia" over restitution debates that happened 40 years ago

As the Black Lives Matter movement goes global, museums face renewed demands to restitute artefacts plundered from Africa

But restitution depends on the adoption of a law covering these specific items, while Benin secures a location to house them

We look back at the major events that made the headlines this year

The gesture is intended as a symbol of France’s commitment to repatriating African heritage

Paid over four years, it will support efforts made by museums, grassroots-organisations and governments

The report made international headlines, recommending the restitution of African artefacts in French museums, but the country has not returned a single item to Africa

Suggestions from controversial Savoy-Sarr report were all-but buried at a conference held in Paris

Didier Claes, who was consulted for the restitution report commissioned by French president Emmanuel Macron, says it has invigorated the market for African art