France's Macron to finalise art restitution agreement with Benin on Tuesday

French President Emmanuel Macron will meet with his counterpart from Benin, President Patrice Talon, on Tuesday to formally seal an agreement to give back to the former French colony 26 artworks, said Macron's Elysee office.

The process of handing back artworks that France had taken from its former African colony's Palaces of Abomey -- today a UNESCO World Heritage site -- was first promised by Macron in 2017.

A 2018 report by French art historian Benedicte Savoy and Senegalese economist Felwine Sarr recommended the widespread return of cultural artifacts removed from Africa and identified 46,000 objects that would qualify for restitution at Paris museum Quai Branly, which holds some 70,000 African objects.

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