Significant changes underway in museums and contemporary society necessitate in-depth research to better understand public collections and their origins.
In addition to the principles of sound public heritage management (regulatory inventory, verification), ethical and societal questions now arise, requiring an examination of the provenance of collections.
Laws concerning the restitution of property looted between 1933 and 1945 and of human remains, as well as the draft law currently being prepared on cultural property, also call for the identification of potentially relevant collections within public holdings.
At the same time, museums must be better equipped to protect themselves from the illicit trafficking of cultural property in the context of their acquisitions, as recommended in the report submitted to the Minister on this subject on November 21, 2022.
This document, which has no normative value, is now a professional standard of reference for museums, particularly in the face of four major issues:
- spoliations that occurred between 1933 and 1945;
- Illicit trafficking of cultural property;
- circulation of works in a colonial or conflict context;
- gaps in provenance in ancient collections.
A structuring methodological framework for the management of collections, the prevention of legal risks and restitution policies.
