He declares that his actions seek to recover what was stolen from the countries that were colonized

On October 22 of this year, Emery Mwazulu Diyabanza, a Congolese activist, was arrested at the Louvre Museum after trying to steal a work from the museum. During his visit, Diyabanza held up a piece of sculpture from Indonesia, and while holding the work, he began to declare to those present that his actions were an attempt to recover the works that were looted from different countries during the colonial period. The activist was immediately detained by the museum's security force.

Diyabanza belongs to the pan-African league “Unité, Dignité, Couragé” (Trans: Unity, Dignity, Courage), which among its priorities fights for the liberation and transformation of Africa, and the restitution of African heritage. This is not the first time the activist has gotten in trouble with the authorities for trying to steal works. At the beginning of the same month, Diyabanza carried out similar actions by lifting an African funerary totem from the Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum and in July he attempted to steal an ivory object from the Museum of African, American and Oceanian Arts in Marseille; None of the pieces that Diyabanza has interacted with have suffered any damage.

In his own words, the activist says that his actions cannot be considered “theft,” since the objects were already stolen property from other countries, and he condemns the million-dollar profits that many museums obtain at the expense of artifacts that do not belong to them. But the French court thinks differently. For the totem he tried to steal, the activist paid 1,000 euros (approximately $24,500 pesos) for aggravated robbery, and on this second occasion, he was fined 5,000 euros (approximately $122,300 pesos) for “damaging the image of the museum (Louvre) and provoke international echo with his actions” after a video of him carrying the work went viral. Diyabanza's defense team will appeal this second verdict.

France and its resistance to restoring archaeological pieces

While many Western countries have been accused of filling their museums with pieces taken from former colonies, France is constantly criticized for having very few channels for returning archaeological works to their countries of origin, a situation that even goes the interests of President Emmanuel Macron, who has promised the return of artifacts to Senegal and Benin. According to the French Senate, if the works are returned to their countries of origin, the museums "could be left empty."

And unlike other governments where people who want to sell archaeological pieces must prove that they were acquired legally, France puts the onus on the countries that claim the pieces to prove that they were really stolen from them. This greatly complicates the process of recovering works to their original countries, since many of these pieces were illegally removed from their place of origin in times of war or colonization, when records of archaeological works were non-existent, limited or even completely destroyed.

Sources: Artnet News and La Vanguardia.