The French government has presented a bill intended to simplify the restitution to their countries of origin of works of art removed in the colonial era, reports Artguide

The French government has presented a bill intended to simplify the restitution to their countries of origin of works of art removed in the colonial era, reports Artguide. If the law is adopted, the process of returning objects from France's national collections that originate from states which lost them through unlawful appropriation between 1815 and 1972 will be made easier.

The document provides for the return of items that ended up in France as a result of "theft, plunder, transfer or gift under duress or violence, or from a person who had no authority to make it". At present, the decision to return each object from the national collection is taken on an individual basis.

This bill completes a three-stage legislative initiative aimed at speeding up the removal and return of cultural property from state collections. The two previous laws, on the restitution of property confiscated by the Nazis and on the return of human remains, were passed in 2023.