Symposium in person and live and on the museum's YouTube channel

Programme

Introduction 
9.30am – 10am 
Opening remarks by Emmanuel Kasarhérou, President of the musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac
A restitution and its context

Talk by Paul Akogni, Director of Benin Cultural Heritage
Restitution of cultural property, between cultural stakes and the rise of a museum- and heritage-based economy in Benin

Military expeditions and pillaging (history, context, and archives)

10am – 10.45am
Donatienne Ruby-Nougaret, assistant to the head of the Land Forces and War Archives division in the Defence Historical Service 
The archives of military-scientific expeditions for the Defence Historical Service
and
Gilles Ferragu, lecturer in contemporary history at Paris Ouest-Nanterre University and assistant to the Head of the Research, Studies, Teaching Division of the History and Symbols Department at the Defence Historical Service
Presentation of French and European military-scientific expeditions and contextualisation of military expeditions

Felicity Bodenstein, art historian, specialist in the history of museums and collections, lecturer, Sorbonne University. 
The British “prize” system: the Benin case, 1897

History of objects

10.45am – 11.15am
Didier Houenoude, director of the National Institute of Art, Archaeology and Culture at Abomey-Calavi University, art historian, lecturer/researcher at Abomey-Calavi University
and
Gaëlle Beaujean, head of the Africa collections at the musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac
The course of the objects of Abomey

Scientific study of works: the three bocio

11am – 11.30am
Philippe Charlier, Director of the Department of Research and Education
Report on the analyses and scientific studies performed by the musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac on a part of the returned works

An archaeologist’s perspective: the Abomey site

11.30am – 11.45am 
Recorded presentation by François-Xavier Fauvelle, professor at the Collège de France, historian and archaeologist specialising in Africa 
History and archaeology of African worlds (the place of Benin)

11.45am – 12.15pm
Didier N’dah, archaeologist and lecturer at the University of Abomey-Calavi
and

Philippe Charlier, Director of Research and Education at the musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac
Archaeology: presentation of the Abomey site

Summary and conclusion of the morning 

12.15pm – 12.45pm
Concluding remarks by Romuald Tchibozo, coordinator of the History and Archaeology Department of the Pluri-disciplinary Doctoral School at the University of Abomey-Calavi
The migration of art objects in a global history