At a glance:

• No national laws or policy on repatriation
• There is no meaningful way to engage with Danish institutions on the issue of repatriation at the moment

Overview

Due to the Danish colonisation of Greenland, the National Museum of Denmark has largely been involved in the repatriation of cultural heritage to Greenland. In 1983, the two countries signed a repatriation agreement that has resulted in the return of more than 35,000 artefacts to Greenland.

The National Museum of Denmark does not have a formal repatriation policy outside of this agreement. However, in 2021 they did return a Sami drum to the Sami in Norway. The Sami are Indigenous to the northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and parts of Russia.

In September 2024, the National Museum of Denmark returned a sacred cloak to Brazil that had been taken from the Tupinambá people.

There is some hope that the movement of other countries in Europe towards repatriation will lead to more of this work in Denmark.