Repatriation Update for the New Year

This is part 1 of a series. Read part 2 here.

Repatriation activity in the U.S. and around the globe during 2025 demonstrated the varying arrangements that can be made between returning institutions and countries of origin, while also highlighting some of the thorny issues that can arise during the process.

The start of the new year provides a timely opportunity to review the status of repatriation activity around the globe. Town & Country magazine’s detailed 2025 timeline has much to celebrate in the form of museums returning stolen objects to their country of origin or, in the case of art looted by the Nazis, to the heirs of the rightful owners. Below are a few observations:

In the United States

• In 2024 the Department of the Interior adopted regulations to improve the process of repatriating objects and remains under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (“NAGPRA”). In 2025 there was progress implementing internal processes to comply with the new regulations. Notably, Katie Hobbs, the governor of Arizona, announced that she was seeking $7 million in funding to assist the efforts of the Arizona State Museum, which has been a leader in inventorying, consulting and returning stolen artifacts. The question remains whether other states will contribute to these efforts for which museums have legal obligations but little financial ability or incentives to comply with them.

• A landmark development was an agreement between the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the descendants of David Drake, an accomplished potter enslaved in South Carolina. Under the agreement, two vessels from 1857 were returned to the heirs. One will remain on loan to the museum for at least two years. The other, known as the “Poem Jar” because of its unusual inscriptions, has been purchased by the museum, which now has a certificate of ethical ownership. A lawyer for Drake’s heirs told the NY Times that this was “the first time that principles of ethical restitution have been applied to works of art created by an enslaved African American.”

• The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has been particularly active in repatriating artworks. In 2025, antiquities valued at millions of dollars were returned to Italy, Greece, Nepal, Cambodia, Paraguay, Pakistan, Egypt, Hungary, Spain, Costa Rica and Poland.

Globally

• Repatriation activity in 2025 illustrated the broad spectrum of possible arrangements that can be made between the parties, from unconditional return with formal ceremonies to a variety of creative partnerships – agreement by the country of origin to have the objects retained or reconveyed to the returning museum for exhibition (for example the Metropolitan Museum and Greece concerning a 7^th century bronze griffin head); repurchase of the objects by the returning museum (Germany’s Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz (SPK) and the heirs of a Berlin art dealer re two artworks); formation of a new charitable foundation to own the objects (the German government and the descendants of the kings of Prussia); or transfer to an intermediary museum for further distribution (the Vatican Museums to the Canadian Bishops to be passed on to Indigenous communities re an ancient kayak). Sometimes the repatriated objects are the catalyst for creation of new “inspired by” objects.

• Although some of the famous Benin Bronzes have been returned to Nigeria, the process was thrown into disarray by issues of rightful ownership of the stolen objects as between the government of Nigeria and the descendants of the royal family. The controversy raises the thorny question of what say the returning country should have in what happens to the objects once returned.

• Sometimes the issue of whether return is appropriate at all is controversial. Right-wing politicians in Italy have opposed the return of a Renaissance altarpiece to Slovenia. This issue is not an isolated one and will recur where territory has gone back and forth between nations.

We will continue to highlight innovative and important developments in this area.