The Restitution Debate: African Art in a Global Society

9:00 Opening remarks
David Freedberg, Pierre Matisse Professor of the History of Art; Director of the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America at Columbia University, New York

9:10 Welcome
Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Professor of Philosophy; Director of the Institute of African Studies at Columbia University, New York

9:20 “African artifacts: the next step, a new relational ethic”
Felwine Sarr, Professor at the University Gaston Berger in Saint Louis, Senegal

9:50 “Transparence, amnésie. 40 ans de débats sur la restitution, 1978–2019” / “Transparency, amnesia: 40 years of debates on restitution, 1978–2019”
Bénédicte Savoy, Professor of Modern Art History at the Institute of Art History and Historical Urban Studies at the Technische Universität Berlin

10:10 Discussion

10:30–10:45 Coffee break

11:00 “Can products of the imagination be sent back to tyrannies?”
Patrice Nganang, Writer, Professor at Stony Brook University, New York

11:20 “Post–Sarr-Savoy Report: matters arising”
Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi, Lisa Tananbaum Curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, New York

11:40 Discussion

12:00–1:30 Break

1:30 “Restitution, disciplines and decolonization”
Ciraj Rassool, Professor of History at the University of the Western Cape; Director, African Programme in Museum and Heritage Studies, Cape Town, South Africa

1:50 “The life of the Bamenda Provincial Museum (Cameroon): audience, funding, and infrastructure”
Erica P. Jones, Associate Curator of African Arts, Fowler Museum, University of California, Los Angeles

2:10 “African art and the African diaspora in a historical perspective”
Pap Ndiaye, Professor of History at the Centre d’histoire de Sciences Po, Paris

2:30 Discussion

3:00–3:15 Coffee break

3:15 “Réapproprions-nous nos biens culturels méconnus” / “Let’s reappropriate our unknown cultural heritage”
Daouda Keïta, Director of the Musée National du Mali, Bamako

3:35 “Our history’s future”
Marie-Cécile Zinsou, President of the Fondation Zinsou, Cotonou, Bénin

3:55 “Listening”
Zoë Strother, Riggio Professor of African Art at Columbia University, New York

4:15 Discussion
Paulin J. Hountondji, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the Université Nationale du Bénin, Cotonou

Professor Hountondji will respond to the conference as a whole and lead an open discussion

From the Italian Academy at Columbia University.