Released on:
Bogotá (AFP) – From anthropomorphic figurines to 1,500-year-old indigenous necklaces, Colombia recently repatriated 274 ancient artifacts from the United States.
Colombia’s embassy in Washington has been collecting artifacts from across the United States since 2018 thanks to “confiscations” and “voluntary returns by collectors,” Alhena Caicedo, director of Colombia’s ICANH institute of anthropology and history, told AFP.
The ceramic, stone and shell objects, made by indigenous communities between 500 BC and 500 AD, were returned last week by Colombian President Gustavo Petro as he returned from the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Now based in the offices of the ministry of foreign affairs in Bogota, AFP was able to view a small portion of the ancient artifacts that are on display.
Wearing latex gloves, ICANH officials carefully handled the priceless objects.
Most of those returned to Colombia were voluntarily surrendered by an American woman who inherited them from her late husband. He had bought them in the southwestern Colombian city of Cali in the 1970s.
Others were confiscated by the FBI as part of an agreement between the two countries to return cultural artifacts that have been sold on the black market.
These artifacts “were illegally removed from this country, we don’t know exactly when,” Caicedo said.
They come from different regions of Colombia where peoples such as the Tumaco, Narino, Quimbaya, Tayrona and Sinu lived before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in 1492.
Colombia says it has another 730 objects in its diplomatic missions around the world in need of repatriation.
#photo1
Last year, then-Vice President Marta Lucia Ramirez asked prestigious German auction house Gerhard Hirsh to cancel the sale of 25 pieces of pre-Columbian artwork.
Other Latin American countries have made similar demands after complaints from indigenous people that their property has been looted.
According to UNESCO, the illegal sale of looted cultural objects is worth nearly 10 billion dollars.
© 2022 AFP
