In the 1970s, such demands reached the Federal Foreign Office via the UN General Conference. At the same time, several German museums were confronted with specific restitution claims, for example regarding the ‘Benin bronzes’ from Nigeria.
Following in the footsteps of museum experts, journalists and leading politicians, Anna Valeska Strugalla reconstructs how the restitution issue was reinterpreted from a foreign policy problem to a development policy opportunity and why the intense debate suddenly lost its significance.
This issue explores the attitude towards restitution of German government officials and museumdirectors and the use of restitution as cultural diplomacy in the 1970s and 1980s.
