Date of Award

2025

Document Type

Thesis - Restricted Access (SIA Only)

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Art Business

First Advisor

Maria Sancho Arroyo

Second Advisor

Agnes Berecz

Abstract

Cultural restitution and reparation are significant in addressing historical injustices and restoring dignity to communities whose heritage has been displaced, stolen, or otherwise exploited. In the United States, such efforts bear profound significance for Indigenous communities, whose sacred artifacts, ceremonial objects, and ancestral remains have been systematically removed or destroyed via colonization, territorial expansion, and assimilation policies. Internationally, frameworks like the 1970 UNESCO Convention and the Cultural Property Implementation Act provide mechanisms to combat the theft and illicit trade of cultural property, while the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, on the domestic level, does indeed provide a pathway for Indigenous communities to reclaim their heritage. While all these measures are being taken, restitution and reparation are nonetheless done piecemeal, leaving huge gaps in redressing the broader injury to Indigenous peoples in the United States and elsewhere. While narrowly defined, restitution refers to the return of tangible property—artifacts or remains—illicitly removed from owners, reparation is the term used in a much broader sense: measures such as financial compensation, land restoration, cultural revitalization, and public acknowledgment of harm for systemic injustices. International frameworks emphasize restitution to address the illicit trade of cultural property, while domestic efforts for Indigenous groups seek to incorporate elements of reparation alongside restitution. But all these efforts have fallen short in their reach and actually fail to redress completely the historical and continued impacts of dispossession. 3 This paper discusses the challenges of cultural restitution and reparation within national and international perspectives, identifying the way legal frameworks, historical narratives, and institutional practices influence the processes. Drawing on case studies—among them, the repatriation of Native American remains and cultural items according to NAGPRA and the UNESCO Convention facilitating cross-border restitutions—it assesses strengths and weaknesses in current practice. By integrating these different insights, this study identifies the need for a new model of cultural heritage restoration informed by considerations of equity, proactive policy, resource parity, and ethical accountability. In the end, this will help shed light on pathways for achieving cultural justice and healing, where restitution and reparation are afforded not only as corrective measures but also as transformative processes affecting communities and institutions alike.

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