The Future of French Restitutions: What the Law of 9 May 2026 Changes, and What It Doesn’t

Fon sculpture dedicated to Gou, Republic of Benin. Photograph by Ji-Elle, 27 May 2012.
Source: Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

By Aurelia Stauner

In March 2026, visitors returning to the Louvre’s newly renovated gallery of non-Western art would have noticed an absence. The iron statue of Gou, the Fon deity of iron and war, and one of the most celebrated works of African art in France, is no longer on display; it had been moved to the Musée du Quai Branly’s reserves. A French weekly described this move as “a measure of prudence, in view of a possible restitution.”^[1] The object in question is Benin’s perhaps most emphatic restitution request, and the law that will decide its fate entered into force only two months later.

On 9 May 2026, a new legal framework regarding the restitution of cultural goods came into application in France.^[2] After decades in which every restitution from a French public collection required its own act of Parliament, this new law is set to fundamentally change what can be restituted, and how that process works. Passed unanimously by both chambers, the new law converts what was a political exception into a standing procedure. But how exactly does this new framework operate? Does it apply to all cultural goods? And what happens to restitution requests that were filed under the old rules? Let’s investigate.