Provenance Research and the Memory Politics of the Colonial Past: A Franco-German Comparison

Provenance research has become central to the investigation and governance of contested collections from colonial contexts, yet national approaches differ substantially. Building on Sarah Gensburger’s analysis of how states administer the past, this paper approaches provenance research as public policy. It examines laws, guidelines, funding schemes and expert bodies as “memorial infrastructures” that shape research practices and restitution processes. Comparing France and Germany, it asks how distinct memory policies and institutional trajectories produce different professional and evidentiary regimes. The Franco-German Provenance Research Fund, negotiated in 2023 in the wake of the 60th anniversary of the Elysée Treaty, serves as a case study of how national frameworks intersect with transnational cooperation. The paper argues that effective international collaboration requires not only shared standards but also an understanding of the national memory policies through which they are interpreted and applied.