France has returned three colonial-era human skulls to Madagascar, including one believed to belong to King Toera, a Malagasy king executed by French troops in 1897. The skulls were handed over to Malagasy representatives at the French Culture Ministry on Monday, after being held in Paris’s National Museum of Natural History. French Culture Minister Rachida Dati called the return “historic,” while her Malagasy counterpart Volamiranty Donna Mara described it as healing an “open wound” after 128 years.
This restitution is part of a broader effort by President Emmanuel Macron to address colonial-era looting, though progress has been slowed by France’s heritage code, which classifies museum holdings as “inalienable.” New legislation introduced this year aims to streamline the return of objects taken illicitly between 1815 and 1972, and is scheduled for Senate debate in September. The return matters because it signals a continued shift in France’s approach to colonial restitution, following the 2023 return of 26 artifacts to Benin, and underscores the growing global movement to repatriate human remains and cultural heritage to their countries of origin.