On April 17, 2025, the bicentennial of France's 1825 decree imposing a massive indemnity on Haiti for its independence, French President Macron announced a joint commission of historians to study the debt's impact. While some institutions like Bordeaux's Musée d'Aquitaine and Paris's Palais de Tokyo engaged with the topic through exhibitions, France's major public art museums and national monuments remained largely silent. Two exhibitions devoted to King Charles X—the monarch who enforced the debt—at the Mobilier National and Château de Maisons highlighted this absence, as they failed to address his role in Haiti's history.
This silence matters because it reflects a broader historiographical erasure of the Haitian Revolution and its aftermath, as theorized by Michel-Rolph Trouillot in his book "Silencing the Past." The lack of acknowledgment from France's leading art institutions during a year of conferences, publications, and documentaries on the indemnity suggests a continued reluctance to confront colonial legacies. The article argues that museums have a responsibility to engage with difficult histories, and their silence perpetuates the erasure of Haiti's struggle and France's ongoing complicity.