ABSTRACT
The historical window opened by President Macron in Ouagadougou on 28 November 2017, preparing the path towards the restitution of African cultural heritage objects currently held in French national collections, has probably established a new era in cultural relations between France and Africa and, from a broader perspective, between the North and the South of the planet. The subsequent Sarr-Savoy Report written in 2018, aimed at providing the chronological, juridical, methodological, and financial framework to ensure the return of African cultural heritage items back to Africa, raised several questions about the existence of the legal and moral grounds of such an approach, as well as about the obstacles in its concrete achievement. Starting from the concrete outcomes of the Sarr-Savoy Report’s implementation, this paper explores the consistency between the fulfilment of legal duties, ethical principles and identity links, in the light of the prospects for a sustainable management of cultural heritage.
