Explores the role played by museums and national governments in the return of cultural objects.

Ana Filipa Vrdoljak is Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute, Florence and a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Law at the University of Western Australia.

Introduction; 1. The state and national culture in the early nineteenth century; 2. International law, international exhibitions in the late nineteenth century; 3. Dismantling empires and post-World War I peace treaties; 4. Colonised peoples and the League of Nations; 5. Restitution in the mid-twentieth century; 6. Genocide, human rights and colonised peoples during the Cold War; 7. Decolonisation without restitution; 8. Indigenous peoples and restitution as a process; 9. Indigenous peoples, states and reconciliation; Conclusion.