Ireland to draw up policy on returning historical artefacts to their countries of origin

Ireland will seek to repatriate historical artefacts from other countries following proposals announced by the Minister for Culture and Arts, Catherine Martin.

An expert committee is being established to see what objects are in museum collections in the State that should be returned to their countries of origin.

There are an estimated 15,000 objects which are in the National Museum of Ireland collection which were acquired between 1760 and 1914 when Ireland was part of the British Empire. These include items from North and South America, Africa, Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia.

Last year University College Cork (UCC) announced that it would repatriate a number of objects in its heritage collection to the Egyptian state. The items in question include mummified human remains, a sarcophagus, a set of four Canopic jars, and items of cartonnage (coverings) dating from 100AD to about 975BC. UCC came into possession of the mummified remains through a donation in 1928.

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Closer to home Trinity College Dublin announced earlier this year that it would return human skulls to the island of Inishbofin, off Co Galway, which were taken without the community’s consent more than a century ago.

Internationally, there have been a number of recent high-profile cases in which artefacts have been returned by cultural institutions to their places of origin. Last year Germany returned 21 Benin bronzes to Nigeria. The Horniman Museum and Jesus College, Cambridge also returned bronze statues to Nigeria. Greece has continually demanded the return of the Elgin marbles which were torn from the Parthenon and the Acropolis in the 19th century and are now in the British Museum. Britain has refused to return them.

Ms Martin said there was no policy on what to do with the restitution and repatriation of culturally sensitive objects in Ireland. “The objective of the committee is to provide policy advice and prepare national guidelines to support Irish cultural institutions in dealing with objects of unknown provenance in their collections,” she said.

The new advisory committee will provide critical support to collection managers regarding professional standards in the management of cultural heritage. The committee will be chaired by Sir Donnell Deeny, chairman of the UK government’s spoliation advisory panel and member of the Court of Arbitration for Art in The Hague.

Membership of the committee will be drawn from the museum, archives and gallery sector, the Civil Service, and legal and ethical expertise, as well as representation from claimant communities.

The Heritage Council, the statutory body with responsibility to propose policies relating to heritage objects as well as responsibility for the Museum Standards Programme of Ireland, will serve as the oversight body for the advisory committee and will provide the secretariat.