'Does not belong to us': Belgium initiates process to return 'stolen art' to Congo

Belgium’s government on Tuesday announced that its Africa Museum will begin the multi-year process of returning stolen art to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Speaking to the reporters at a press conference earlier on July 6, Secretary of State for Recovery Programmes, Thomas Dermine said, ”What was acquired illegitimately does not belong to us. It must be returned,” as he backed the approach ‘restitution’ of cultural artefacts looted from the Congo during the colonial period. 

The museum has been conducting provenance research into the timeline and the circumstances in which most of the museum’s unique collection was acquired. It was found that most of the artefact was looted and therefore, the federal government now aimed to return the art that was plundered while Congo was a Belgian colony for almost 80 years. The first of its kind plan was presented by Dermine at the Africa Museum in Tervuren.

“The time has come to return the objects that were unlawfully removed from Congo because they belong to the Congolese people,” Belgium’s Secretary of State Thomas Dermine stated in a press release.

He continued, “Cultural heritage is one of the riches exploited by the colonial powers, and taking thousands of objects from colonies deprives the citizens of the former colony of access to their own history, culture, creativity and spirituality of their ancestors.” 

According to the scientists studying the provenance of the artefacts at the African Museum, as many as 130,000 objects of the total collection has been acquired “illegally”. The junior minister Dermine emphasised at a state presser, "It simply doesn't belong to us.” Belgium’s museum spent approximately 66-million-euro ($78 million) on the critical study and decided to hand over the objects to the DRC which it described was gained either through theft, violence or through pillaging.

As millions of Congolese laid their lives from the late 19th century during Belgium’s colonisation, in a move to honour them, Belgium stated that it will transfer legal ownership of the art from the museum in Tervuren located outside Brussels, although not immediately but as per the requests made by the Republic of Congo. It also proposed a separate option to pay a loan fee to DRC.

Congo, one of the world's poorest countries, might attract tourism

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the economies worldwide battered reeling under the disastrous impact of the disruption of trade and commerce. Congo, which is among the world's poorest countries, according to the UN, may be able to attract tourism into the museum via these cultural artefacts and figurines, the Belgium government said. Some of the studies in the context of the acquisition of the museum objects and related documents were obtained by the military’s Lieutenant Émile Storms. It was found that the museum also houses nearly 340 ethnographic objects related to wars and the families of the armed forces.

(With Agency Inputs)