The looted status of the stele has been well documented since the 1980s, but it wasn’t until this year that the FBI and Dallas Museum of Art collaborated to return the religious artifact.
Restitution
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Nazi-looted Watercolor by Egon Schiele, Belonging to Artist’s Dentist, Will Be Returned to Heirs
Germany’s advisory commission on Nazi-looted art also recommended the return of a painting by Erich Heckel to the heirs of Jewish journalist Max Fischer.
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The Last of 14 Definitively Nazi-Looted Artworks in the Gurlitt Trove Is Restituted
The remaining work was returned by the estate of Cornelius Gurlitt, son of an art dealer who built a private collection in the process of helping the Nazis sell stolen art.
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Mexico Asks Christie’s to Cancel Upcoming Sale of Pre-Hispanic Objects
The National Institute for Anthropology and History in Mexico says 30 objects in the sale belong to the country’s national patrimony, and three others are fake.
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In Surprise Ruling, Kandinsky Painting Will Not Be Returned to Jewish Collector Heirs
The Amsterdam District Court rejected claims from the heirs of a Jewish art collector that a 1909 painting by Kandinsky in Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum was sold under Nazi-era duress and should be returned.
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Artist Discovers a Looted Statue in a Canadian Museum’s Collection, Leading to Its Repatriation
After Divya Mehra uncovered the colonial history behind a misidentified 18th-century statue, the Mackenzie Art Gallery repatriated it and acquired Mehra’s work about the figure in its stead.
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“Bad Beuys”: Artists “Steal” a Joseph Beuys as a Statement About Repatriation
How better to illustrate the inadequacy of current restitution efforts than to offer up as tribute an object by one of Germany’s most famous artists, who thought art could bring about transformative social change?
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After Years of Repatriation Debates, France’s Benin Restitution Bill Approved
Meanwhile, a new report commissioned by the Dutch culture minister suggests the return of “any cultural objects looted in former Dutch colonies if the source country so requests.”
Posted inIn Brief
Activists Fined After Anti-colonial Protest at Quai Branly Museum
Four activists were fined for their live-streamed protest at the Paris museum, in which Mwazulu Diyabanza removed a 19th-century funerary post from its display.
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Activists Stand Trial for Protest in French Museum Over Plundered Artifacts
Members of a Pan-African group stood trial in Paris on charges of attempted theft for an action staged at the city’s Quai Branly Museum.
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A Bill Offers California’s Indigenous Tribes Ownership of Ancestral Objects
Also, a work by Paolo Uccello, sold in a Sotheby’s sale this July for $3.1 million, was revealed to be looted by Nazis.
Posted inArt
Objects Returned to Benin by French Collectors Had Been Removed From a Contested Auction
The transaction illuminates the role individuals can play in rectifying Europe’s history of colonial plunder, but it also reveals the inner workings of a system that allows such objects to land in private hands to begin with.