Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs (KMK): Key aspects of dealing with colonial looted art

On March 13, 2019, the cul­tur­al min­is­ters of the Ger­man states met with rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Fed­er­al gov­ern­ment and the lead­ing mu­nic­i­pal as­so­ci­a­tions to dis­cuss the new spe­cial­ist field of re­search in­to colo­nial loot­ed art. A num­ber of ini­tial key points were agreed with re­gard to deal­ing with col­lec­tion ob­jects from colo­nial con­texts.

These key points re­late to im­por­tant ac­tion ar­eas such as trans­paren­cy, prove­nance re­search and the re­turn of cul­tur­al goods. More in­ten­sive dis­cus­sions on the core is­sues are planned on this ba­sis, and ex­perts from Ger­many, Eu­rope and the coun­tries of ori­gin will be in­volved in im­ple­men­ta­tion.

Carsten Bros­da, Sen­a­tor for Cul­ture and Me­dia in Ham­burg and chair of the KMK, be­lieves the na­tion­wide cul­tur­al pol­i­cy agree­ment is an im­por­tant step to­wards a post-colo­nial cul­ture of re­mem­brance. Moni­ka Grüt­ters, Fed­er­al Gov­ern­ment Com­mis­sion­er for Cul­ture and Me­dia, al­so wel­comed the pa­per: “We can on­ly de­vel­op re­spon­si­ble and fair so­lu­tions in close con­sul­ta­tion with each oth­er.”