Belgium’s Africa museum, once a celebration of the country’s colonial rule, will begin a multi-year process of returning stolen art to Democratic Republic of Congo, the Belgian government has said.
From the late 19th century to 1960, thousands of art works including wooden statues, elephant ivory masks, manuscripts and musical instruments were likely taken by Belgian and other European collectors, scientists, explorers and soldiers.
Following a 66-million-euro ($78 million) overhaul of the Africa museum to take a more critical view of Belgium’s colonial past, the government is ready to meet DRC calls for restitution.
Millions of Congolese are estimated to have died from the late 19th century when Congo was first a personal fiefdom of king Leopold II, before becoming a colony of the Belgian state.
Belgium will transfer legal ownership of the artefacts to DRC but it will not immediately ship art works to the country from the museum in Tervuren, just outside Brussels, unless they are specifically requested by DRC authorities.
That is partly because the museum, which has proved popular since its renovation and attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors before the pandemic, wants to keep artefacts on display. One option is to pay a loan fee to DRC.
Belgium says the Congolese authorities are conscious of the bigger audience in Belgium compared to DRC; it has few cultural centres or storage facilities.
“The museum believes it will be able to cooperate with the Congolese authorities, as is common among international institutions, to keep the objects in Belgium via loan agreements,” said museum director Guido Gryseels.
