Art history is a story of looting. There were tens of thousands of items stolen, looted or torn from their places of origin, mainly by Europeans during the colonial period of the 18th and 19th centuries. But young activists have stepped in. They pressured major European and North American museums to check the provenance of their work and return what didn’t belong to them. “This new ethic, it must be emphasized, did not just appear. It is the public outcry of the current generation that is producing the most impressive results”, said Alfredo Jaar, a Chilean artist, based in New York, whose work is exhibited in MoMA’s permanent collection. And he added: “These young people are very informed and aware of the bonds that unite art and politics.”

In an age of misinformation, these young people are seeking redress from history and their government. “There is a younger generation that is rethinking how culture is preserved, disseminated and transmitted,” says Manuel Borja-Villel, former director of the Reina Sofía Museum, from Brazil, where he prepared the São Paulo Biennial. The big change comes from understanding that history is no longer written through linear narratives adapted to traditional canons. You have to get to grips with what Commissioner Borja-Villel calls “memorable moments.” Who wrote it? The three main beams – he admits – are Afro, Indigenous, and feminist. The cities that have been plundered.

Europe has not fully understood what it means to give back. An example. At the Humboldt Forum museum in Berlin —opening in 2020—large posters hung reading: “Stolen works”, “in exchange for genocide” or “fruits of plunder”. This is an honest initiative. But it was written by the Germans themselves! Not because of the plundered population. The discourse, denouncing youth, continues to be Eurocentric, despite efforts to bring dialogue into place.

Despite some good intentions, improvement has been painfully slow. Six years ago, French President Emmanuel Macron publicly called for a “return of African heritage” during his state visit to Burkina Faso. The French administration has finally submitted 85 pages prepared by Jean-Luc Martinez, the former director of the Louvre — accused of illegal trade in Egyptian antiquities with its homonymous museum in Abu Dhabi — in which he plans to study the return of applications from eight countries. Most striking was the return of bronze from the Kingdom of Benin (dismissed from Nigeria in 1897 by the British Army), but distributed among European and American institutions.

The new generation has seen a reason to lead their cause. “Young people of color, in particular, have played a critical role in bringing this issue to the table,” said Sarah Van Beurden, an expert on postcolonial Africa at Ohio University. Perhaps the most remarkable thing is how claims of climate activism, feminism, or Black Lives Matter (BLM) relate to movements that seem to ignore their demands.

“Young people are considering how culture is preserved, transmitted and disseminated”

Manuel Borja-Villel, curator

Restitution is social change driven by historical memory, injustice and technology. Communication is instantaneous and moves are generated within hours. “Why was this loot reported today and not before? Because until recently Western morality considered certain forms of looting and robbery to be legitimate. These days, social networks are sniping very quickly”, said Bartomeu Marí, independent commissioner.

Amidst the changes awaited the Athenian friezes, made between 447 and 432 BC, and which adorned the Parthenon. Much was destroyed during the siege of 1687. But in the 19th century, the British Lord Elgin (then Greece was part of the Ottoman Empire) chiseled and hammered the parts. By the way, he broke all the rules of archeology. Something Greece considers illegal. Since 1816 they have been on display in the British Museum. And the Mediterranean nation has been fighting for its return for decades. In 2021, British statistics firm YouGov asked 7,717 British adults (including young people) who owned the marble. 59% responded to Greece and only 18% to the UK. This is a matter of national identity. They are not a pair of amphoras. It was equivalent to dividing the El Escorial monastery in two and scattering part of its treasures.

The British Museum would like to propose a system of temporary and rotating line transfers between the two countries. But Greece opposes any joint proposal containing the word “loan”. Socially Britain stands alone. “Without the awareness of young people, including the UK, this global movement supporting the restoration of marbles would not be possible,” explained Greek politician Yanis Varoufakis. This has consequences. England is an old building. It is 170 years old and in need of repair. “The budget is around 1,000 million pounds. But the sponsors will refuse this amount while the son of England threatens to boycott the institution to take the friezes hostage”, warned the former Greek Minister of Finance.

Historical memory, universal justice

Young people, particularly in the UK, have shown their strength by driving oil company BP out of the Tate, and in early June, under protective orange skies, in New York, from hundreds of fires across Canada, several tens (Reclamation of Our Future or Unstained Culture) They demonstrated against Marie-Josée Kravis, president of the MoMA board, married to Henry Kravis, whose venture capital firm KKR – she manages a personal fortune of $7,000 million, according to Forbes – invests in fossil fuels. At a protest against a New York museum, protesters chanted: “We need clean air, not another millionaire!”

This new way of understanding the world makes the loop of restitution (it’s another movement of social consciousness) as close as barbed wire. Separating those who hinder what is just, from those who restore. The Vatican, under the pontificate of Francis, Sicily and Austria returned various pieces of decoration. Young people have succeeded in bringing restitution across generations. The Greek Foreign Minister, Nikos Dendias, left no room. “This is very important to us,” he told Artnet News.

Elena Foster, founder and CEO of publisher Ivorypress, recalls, in the first person, that during the presentation of the Pritzker Prize for architecture (the most prestigious in the world), in May, in Greece, the welcoming speech that opened the ceremony was the voice of the first lady, Mareva Grabowski. “He offered a direct and courageous defense of the need for restitution. It is a question of universal historical justice that responds to objective principles of ethics and aesthetics”, the editor underlines.

The young press is like the press. Metropolitan (New York), Getty (California), National Galleries and Horniman (London), Museum for the Humane, Army Museum and Louvre (Paris), among others, analyzed the origin of their funds. The boy holds up a banner: “Neocolonialism in museums is over.”

Register here to the weekly Ideas newsletter.