restitute

Like museums all over the world, the Met has been buffeted in recent years by growing calls to restitute works that law enforcement officials and foreign governments have said it has no right to.

He would like to see "more freedom for museums, but then a kind of backstop, a committee where we would have to appeal if we wanted to restitute items".

Following a threat by the regional block Ecowas that it would invade Niger if deposed President Mohamed Bazoum wasn't restituted, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger set up an alliance on 16 September.

The decision to restitute them follows several years of contacts between Berlin’s museum authority and Colombia, and an official Colombian request last year for their return.

Crucially, that approach allows for items to be restituted even if the country of origin does not yet have the facilities to store and exhibit them.