Legislazione e prassi italiane in materia di beni culturali tra protezionismo e universalismo. Questioni aperte in materia di restituzione di oggetti sottratti nel periodo coloniale

The article opens with a summary of the historical evolution of Italian cultural heritage law to facilitate a better understanding of the reasons underlying its eminently protectionist attitude. It then briefly discusses the factors giving rise to a recent – albeit fairly moderate – shift towards a more solidaristic approach to regulating cultural property, together with the remaining, and significant, legal obstacles to the restitution of objects unlawfully, or at any rate unethically, appropriated at times of colonial occupation. To this effect, two particularly significant cases (the Aksum stele and the Venus of Cyrene) are also briefly analysed. The paper concludes with a discussion of the road still ahead in comparison with the approach taken by other countries.