Armed conflicts and the repatriation of cultural property: global democratic challenges

Resumo

Claims over the repatriation or restitution of cultural property, particularly property taken as war trophies, have emerged in recent decades as one of the major democratic challenges in the field of Cultural Heritage. This paper discusses two specific cases involving the repatriation of cultural property taken in war contexts: one in the northern hemisphere, from World War II, and another in the southern hemisphere, involving he Paraguayan War. Through an interdisciplinary research project, mobilizing the fields of Cultural Heritage, History and Law, based on documentary and bibliographic sources, this paper seeks to understand the different discourses, memories and values activated by those who want the return of those cultural properties and also by those who advocate that they should remain where they currently are. As a result, it was possible to state that different values are attributed to cultural property, which are activated through power struggles in the political field in defense of specific interests of the parties involved, which culminates in constant (re)significations of cultural heritage in the present time.