"A lack of political will means the UK is dragging its feet when it comes to returning museum artefacts to their country of origin, say experts. Politicians have been accused of “muddying the waters” on museum matters and the Government of lagging behind much of the rest of the world in returning UK museum artefacts."Writes Sally Guyoncourt for inews.

And we couldn't agree more.

Read the full article, on inews.

Lewis McNaught, founder and managing editor of ReturningHeritage.com supports the growing groundswell of opinion on changing heritage legislation.The question of political involvement has also been criticised by Mr McNaught, who said museum boards are populated by Government appointees, who push agendas “which are not necessarily the best interests of the museums.”

Lewis McNaught believes a reluctance for restitution from Government comes from a determination to maintain the UK’s past reputation. “To return is to damage that reputation of Britain as a great trading nation,” he said and added that there was also a feeling that if we “started to return one thing then there would be a deluge of things”, which had to be returned. However, in reality the number of artefacts being requested to be returned to their country of origin is just a fraction of the items held in British collections.

Stalling restitution in the UK has put  the UK “out of step” with much of the rest of the world, according to Mr McNaught, and the DCMS  is also standing their ground by saying that there are no plans to change the  museum's law. This was also highlighted by the provisions in sections 15 and 16 of the Charities Act 2022, reported in the Museums Association.