repatriation

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Human Remains Taken From Easter Island Are Returned
An Easter Island
Promise Is Kept
Nov 13, 2024 1:05 PM CST

An Easter Island Promise Is Kept

Artifacts taken by Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl are returned, as intended: relative

(Newser) - Artifacts and human remains taken by a Norwegian explorer and anthropologist in the late 1940s are being returned to Easter Island, an Oslo museum said Wednesday. In 1947, explorer Thor Heyerdahl sailed on a log raft named Kon-Tiki from Peru to Polynesia in 101 days to prove his theory—that...

Tribe's Sacred Artifacts Finally Escape Church Basement

Wyoming Episcopal Church returns hundreds of artifacts to Northern Arapaho Tribe

(Newser) - The Wyoming Episcopal Church is marking Indigenous Peoples Day by returning some 200 artifacts to the Northern Arapaho Tribe, which has been fighting for ownership for decades. The diocese has held the artifacts—including ceremonial headdresses, medicine bags, stunningly beaded clothing, bows and arrows, and children's toys—since 1946,...

Ancient Necklace Likely Looted From Turkey Returns Home

Boston Museum of Fine Arts is applauded for its move to return piece

(Newser) - A stunning gold and carnelian necklace displayed at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts for four decades is heading back "to its rightful home," per Smithsonian . The museum has returned the 2,500-year-old necklace to Turkey, from which it was likely stolen in 1976. Jewelry taken from Turkey'...

Egypt Wants Its Nefertiti Bust Returned

Zahi Hawass starts a petition to that end

(Newser) - Nefertiti is one of Egypt's most famous queens. An equally famous bust of her resides a continent away—and Egypt is seeking to change that. The 3,400-year-old bust has been on display at Berlin's Neues Museum since 2009; it's been in Germany's possession far longer....

US Inks Deal to Help Panama Control 'Shocking' Migration

New Panama president says he'll shut down Darien Gap route; US will pay migrant repatriation costs

(Newser) - Hundreds of thousands of people cross the Darien Gap each year, a perilous 66-mile stretch of jungle connecting the South American country of Colombia and the Central American country of Panama—many of them on their way to the United States. Now, Panama's new leader is vowing to shutter...

Mad Scramble in US Museums on Native American Displays

New rules handed down by Biden administration prohibit such exhibits without consent from tribes

(Newser) - Museums across America have started closing exhibits highlighting Native American artifacts in an attempt to comply with new Biden administration rules that mandate venues get the OK from Indigenous tribes before displaying those samples. The requirements under the updated Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act , originally passed in 1990,...

Possible Descendant Wants Harvard's Early Slave Photos

Tamara Lanier sued university unsuccessfully to reclaim images she believes depict her family

(Newser) - Thirteen years ago, Tamara Lanier underwent a quest to understand her lineage, resulting in a lawsuit to reclaim photos from a Harvard museum that she believes depict her enslaved ancestors. ProPublica unfolds the moving story that begins with an African-born, enslaved man named Renty. Harvard professor Louis Agassiz, who subscribed...

DNA Links Africa's Stolen Skulls With Living Descendants

Germany to return skulls tied to Chagga people of Tanzania, stolen under colonial rule

(Newser) - Scientists have for the first time identified living descendants of people whose skulls were pillaged from Africa under German colonial rule. Since 2017, Berlin's Museum of Prehistory and Early History has been working to trace at least 1,100 of 7,700 skulls it acquired from a local hospital...

Buckingham Palace Will Not Repatriate Prince's Remains

Captured Ethiopian Prince Alemayehu died in 1879

(Newser) - Buckingham Palace has declined requests to repatriate the remains of Prince Dejatch Alemayehu of Abyssinia, the region now largely made up of Ethiopia. NBC News reports the prince was forcibly taken from his homeland at the age of six in 1868, after British forces defeated his father, Emperor Tewodros II,...

Billionaire Forced to Give Up World's Priciest Ancient Coin

Gold 'Eid Mar' coin, which sold for $4.2M in 2020, was looted, fraudulently sold

(Newser) - The world's most expensive ancient coin—one commemorating the murder of Julius Caesar, minted by the very Brutus who betrayed him—has been seized from its US buyer and repatriated to Greece. The "extraordinarily rare" coin, one of only three gold versions known to exist, and 28 other...

Vatican Giving Up Parthenon Pieces It Has Held for Centuries

The move ratchets up pressure on the British Museum to do the same

(Newser) - The Vatican and Greece finalized a deal Tuesday for the return of three sculpture fragments from the Parthenon that have been in the collection of the Vatican Museums for two centuries, the latest case of a Western museum bowing to demands for restitution. The Vatican has termed the return an...

'A Spoil of War': Egyptologists Demand Return of Rosetta Stone

British Museum, which refused its return in the past, says there's no official request now

(Newser) - Egyptian archaeologists and thousands of supporters are demanding the return of one of the British Museum's most prized artifacts, along with other Egyptian treasures, saying their continued presence in the heart of the British Empire "supports past colonial endeavors of cultural violence." An online petition launched last...

Museum, Tribe Agree on Return of Wounded Knee Artifacts

Items are a fraction of those held by institutions that federal law says should be turned over

(Newser) - About 150 items considered sacred by the Sioux peoples that have been stored at a small Massachusetts museum for more than a century are being returned, museum and tribal officials announced Monday. The items including weapons, pipes, moccasins, and clothing—about seven or eight of which are thought to have...

Harvard Should Have No Native American Remains. It Has 7K

Leaked report says it has only repatriated 3K of the 10K it had over the last 32 years

(Newser) - Harvard University holds human remains belonging to 7,000 Native Americans though a 1990 federal law bars that very thing, according to a draft report from a school committee commissioned to look into the issue last year. The unfinalized report from the Steering Committee on Human Remains in Harvard Museum...

For Easter Island Head, a 'Profoundly Significant' Move

Moai held at Chile's national museum since 1878 to rejoin the Rapa Nui on Easter Island

(Newser) - A century and a half after it was removed from Easter Island, a giant moai is about to head home. The 1,500-pound moai statue housed at Chile's National Museum of Natural History since 1878 will next week begin a five-day journey back to Easter Island , a Chilean territory,...

Saga of Looted Gilgamesh Tablet Comes to an End

3,500-year-old tablet bearing portion of Epic of Gilgamesh now in Baghdad

(Newser) - A small clay tablet dating back 3,500 years and bearing a portion of the Epic of Gilgamesh that was looted from an Iraqi museum 30 years ago was formally returned to Iraq on Tuesday, following a September repatriation ceremony in Washington, DC. The AP reports the $1.7 million...

Couple Used Caligula's Lost Mosaic as Coffee Table

Italian stone expert Dario Del Bufalo speaks on his 2013 discovery

(Newser) - Dario Del Bufalo, an Italian expert on ancient stone, was signing copies of his book, Prophyry, about the reddish-purple rock favored by Roman emperors when a man flipped to a page showing a priceless Roman mosaic that had vanished during World War II. "'Oh, Helen, look, that's...

They Were Promised 'Paradise.' The Destination: North Korea

Lawsuit in Japan seeks retribution for decades-long repatriation program

(Newser) - Some 93,000 people moved from Japan to North Korea in the latter half of the 20th century, many believing they would encounter a "paradise." North Korea—desperate for labor amid efforts to rebuild following two tragic wars—suggested these migrants, many of whom were ethnic Koreans who'...

Tribes Want Changes on Museums Transferring Remains

Institutions have been slow to give up ownership to Native Americans

(Newser) - New rules being drafted by the Biden administration could speed up the process—which essentially is stuck—for museums and other institutions to return the remains of Native American to their tribes. The government set up a system in 1990, but institutions still have possession of the remains of more...

Feds Reveal Alleged Covert Chinese Operation

DOJ says the 8 allegedly surveilled NJ man wanted by Beijing and left a threatening note

(Newser) - The Justice Department has charged eight people with working on behalf of the Chinese government in a pressure campaign aimed at coercing a New Jersey man who was wanted by Beijing to return to China to face charges, officials said. Five of the eight were arrested Wednesday, accused of participating...

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