At the end of 2024, there was major news in the art world: talks between for the British Museum and the government of Greece over the Parthenon Marbles had reportedly reached advanced stages. If such a deal were to take place, it would be monumental for the status of repatriated artwork.

Could it spark a new wave of repatriated works? Has the pace of restitution increased in recent years, or is there just a bigger spotlight on the works that have been returned?

“I don’t think repatriation is necessarily happening more now, but there is heightened interest in looking through museum collections to see what is there and how these things got there,” Sally Yerkovich, adjunct professor of Museum Anthropology at Columbia University and author of A Practical Guide to Museum Ethics , told the Observer last year.

Here's our five main questions about repatriation and restitution in 2025.

What will be the impact of the new process for claims regarding Nazi-looted art?

Last year marked the 25th anniversary of the Washington Conference Principles on returning Nazi-looted art, and at a ceremony marking the anniversary, the U.S. State Department and the World Jewish Restitution Organization released a new “Best Practices” that numerous countries have signed on to. “These best practices more precisely define what is considered Nazi-looted art,” Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said at the ceremony . “They identify solutions when provenance research is lacking. They remedy processes that favor current possessors over rightful owners. They urge countries to bolster their restitution efforts.”

In the U.S., there has been renewed discussion on the lack of a special panel for Nazi-looted art. “With the growing international consensus demonstrated by the Best Practices [for the Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art], an increasing number of claims in the U.S., and rising public interest, now is the moment for establishment of a commission or similar mechanism at the Federal or State level that will not simply apply restrictive law, but rather find historical justice for victims of Holocaust-era looting,” Gideon Taylor, president of the World Jewish Restitution Organization and the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, said in a statement .

In January 2025, Germany’s government launched a new tribunal to adjudicate claims over Nazi-looted art. “We are making the restitution of Nazi-looted art easier, particularly by introducing unilateral access to arbitration,” Claudia Roth, Germany’s culture minister, said in a statement . “We are also creating more legal security and a more binding system.”

But the new system isn't without critiques—a group of lawyers, historians and heirs of Jewish collectors said it was a “slap in the face to victims” and only made the process worse. “Germany, which includes Bavaria, promised to improve the German advisory commission on looted art,” Michael Hulton, the heir to Jewish art collector Alfred Flechtheim said . “Actually, they did quite the opposite, by shutting them down and by proposing arbitration instead which may never see daylight, at least not in the foreseeable future.”

Will debates over ownership of the Benin Bronzes prevent them from being returned to Nigeria?

The Benin Bronzes—linked to a British raid on Benin City in 1897 —will likely continue to be a focus of repatriation efforts in 2025. In October 2021, Jesus College, part of the University of Cambridge, became the first institution to return a Benin Bronze to Nigeria, and other institutions have since followed suit. Back in 2022, the Smithsonian Institution voted to repatriate 29 of its 39 Benin bronzes to Nigeria , but this past summer, the University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art repatriated two Benin Bronzes at the Benin Palace in Nigeria. They became the first U.S. institution to do so.

Mati Diop's documentary film Dahomey , which premiered last year, tracks the return of 26 royal treasures from the Kingdom of Dahomey (now Benin) to France. It is the the Senegalese entry for Best International Feature Film at the 97th Academy Awards, and it made the shortlist. (To be determined if it will be nominated for an Oscar.)

However, the question remains of who receives the Bronzes, however, and if they will go on display. In Nigeria, there's a split between who they should return to: The royal palace or the Nigerian federal body, the National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM)? In 2023, Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari, as he left office, declared the Oba (king) of Benin is the rightful owner —a controversial statement.

As Noah Anthony Enahoro writes in New Lines Magazine , “It appears unfair that Nigeria should have to justify why it is ready to be the home for objects that rightfully, and legally, belong within its borders. But the chances of any more bronzes being returned appear to be slim as long as there are strong political disagreements between the Benin royal family, the NCMM and Nigeria’s federal institutions. Nigeria is closer than ever to maximizing the opportunities presented by the Benin Bronzes and becoming a pioneer for other formerly colonized states engaged in the battle for repatriation. The question now is whether it will dedicate time to addressing political and cultural differences that appear to be hindering the Benin Bronzes from coming home.”

Will there be increased efforts to comply with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA)?

It's not just artwork, either. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), which was passed in 1990, “requires Federal agencies and institutions that receive Federal funds (including museums, universities, state agencies, and local governments) to repatriate or transfer Native American human remains and other cultural items to the appropriate parties.”

A ProPublica investigation in January 2023 found that many Native American remains are still held in colleges and universities around the country. That kickstarted the repatriation, as did a grants announced by the National Park Service to support complying with NAGPRA.

A few months ago, in October 2024, Oregon State University , in collaboration with the nine federally recognized Native nations in Oregon, opened what is believed to be the first facility dedicated to the repatriation of ancestral remains. “To my knowledge, it hasn't been done by any other educational institution in the United States, which hopefully will set precedents for the other institutions to do the right thing,” Wilson Wewa, a tribal leader and elder from the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, said . “For decades, if not over a century, many universities and museums have treated the remains of our ancestors as artifacts, as the unclaimed or unknown people, and by doing so, showing a big disrespect to our tribes.”

Will New York continue to be the epicenter of restitution claims in the U.S.?

In the U.S., under D.A. Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan District Attorney office's Antiquities Trafficking Unit has “recovered almost 2,100 antiquities stolen from 39 countries and valued at $250 million. Since its creation, the ATU has recovered almost 5,800 antiquities valued at almost $460 million and has returned more than 5,250 of them so far to 29 countries.” These coming months will likely see even more art repatriated via the Manhattan D.A.'s office.

But in October, the Art Institute of Chicago pushed back against the mandate after the unit tried to seize “Russian War Prisoner” by Egon Schiele, saying Manhattan D.A. lacks jurisdiction.

“This is an unprecedented, extraordinary, and we submit both legally and factually baseless effort by the Manhattan D.A.’s Office to overextend New York criminal law and to insert itself into a civil property dispute over a work that has been lawfully owned and possessed in another state for decades,” Edward B. Diskant, a lawyer for the institute, argued in New York Supreme Court.

ATU prosecutor Matthew Bogdanos responded, “What they’re really arguing for is a return to the good old days, to the halcyon days of a collector’s paradise, in which nobody, nobody, nobody was investigating possession of stolen antiquities…They’re asking this court to set back the clock 50 years ago, they’re saying disband this problematic antiquities trafficking unit.”

The case is expected to be reconvened this month. As the New York Times notes , “The stakes are evident in the crowd of experts, investigators, invested heirs and art lawyers who have been drawn to witness the proceedings in a Manhattan criminal courtroom. Though museums and collectors sometimes return artifacts on their own initiative or in response to court claims, the district attorney’s unit, aided at times by federal investigators, has evolved into the leading U.S. agent for the restitution of stolen artworks.”

Will the Pantheon Marbles return to Greece?

Last but not least: Could the Parthenon Marbles (also known as the Elgin Marbles) be returned to Greece in some sort of partnership between the Greek government and the British Museum? It's not out of the realm of possibility.

In December, a spokesperson for the British Museum said, “Discussions with Greece about a Parthenon partnership are ongoing and constructive. We believe that this kind of long-term partnership would strike the right balance between sharing our greatest objects with audiences around the world, and maintaining the integrity of the incredible collection we hold at the museum.”