By Cassandra Garrison and Marco Aquino
LIMA (Reuters) – More than 200 ancient pre-Hispanic artifacts ranging from ceramics to important works of Indigenous art have been successfully reclaimed by Peru from collectors and institutions around the world, its foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
Some of the objects, which include sculptures, textiles and tools, are more than 2,000 years old, government officials said, with the oldest dating back to 200 B.C.
The objects were returned to the South American country from private collectors and institutions in the United States, Germany, Belgium, Canada and Spain. They include the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History in California, the F.C. Gundlach Foundation in Germany and Belgian auction house Booneshares.
Most were voluntarily returned, though the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the German police assisted in some cases, the officials said.
“Many left the country as a result of illegal trafficking,” said Peru’s Deputy Minister of Cultural Heritage Haydee Rosas.
Among the objects were two “quipos” – ropes with knots that served as an accounting system – and dozens of sculptures of the Inca culture, an empire that dominated what is now Andean Peru from the 13th century until the arrival of the Spanish. Artifacts also came from other Indigenous civilizations, including the Chancay and Chimu cultures.
The return of the artifacts to Peru is part of its ongoing effort to reclaim historical items that have been smuggled out of the country or stored for decades in international museums. About 840 pieces have been repatriated in the last two years, Rosas said.
(Reporting by Cassandra Garrison and Marco Aquino, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
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