French report on restitution of tribal art has dealers nervous

Belgium and France — two of the largest former colonial powers in Africa — are central trading hubs for artworks from sub-Saharan Africa. And dealers are alarmed by a November report commissioned by President Emmanuel Macron of France that recommends French museums permanently return artworks removed from Africa without consent, if their countries of origin ask for them back.

Effects: The impact of the report so far is unclear, but dealers are grousing about possible implications for their bottom lines and insisting their trade is moral. They also wonder what the report means for collections like that of the Africa Museum in Belgium, many of whose 120,000 items were acquired during a brutal campaign by Belgian colonial leaders that killed millions of Congolese.

One take: Didier Claes, a tribal art trader in Brussels of Congolese ancestry, was critical of the report and said that, as a member of the African diaspora, he appreciated being able to see his heritage in European museums. “I’m so proud to go to an important museum and see my culture next to a Modigliani,” he said.

Looking ahead: Mr. Macron has called for an international conference to be held in Paris this year to develop a policy based on exchanges of artifacts. Sharing, rather than restitution, could prove to be the preferred solution for problematic objects.