Museum to Return Easter Island Moai 'Head'
- February 21, 2022 21:29
A 1,500-pound giant sculptural head taken from Easter Island by the Chilean navy in 1870 will be returned.
Chile's National Museum of Natural History said Monday it will return the stone statue, dubbed Moai Tau, to the Rapa Nui people.
"For the Rapa Nui, their ancestors, funerary objects and ceremonial materials may be as alive as members of their communities themselves," said a museum statement.
The return of the monolith "is profoundly significant as a gesture towards our indigenous peoples," said museum curator Cristian Becker.
The Rapa Nui community has also asked the British Museum in London to return another Moai, dubbed Hoa Hakananai'a, that was taken in 1868 from Orongo, a ceremonial village on Easter Island, reports Phys.org.
