US CHARITY BUYS HOPI ARTIFACTS TO RETURN TO TRIBES

[xchrom]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_FRANCE_HOPI_AUCTION?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-12-11-05-39-47

PARIS (AP) -- A U.S. charity says it has purchased 24 contested Native American artifacts from a French auction house in order to return them to tribes who sought to block their sale.

The Los Angeles-based Annenberg Foundation said in a statement on its website Wednesday that it paid a total $530,000 for the artifacts and will return them to the Hopi Nation in Arizona and to the San Carlos Apache tribe.

The auction last week raised a total of $1.6 million from the sale of sacred Hopi masks and other artifacts, which the tribes argued represent their ancestors' spirits and shouldn't be sold.

A bid by the tribes' lawyers to get a French court to block the auction failed after a judge ruled the sale was legal in France.

[SamKnause]

1. Artifacts

THANK YOU Annenberg Foundation !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[pipoman]

2. Great story..

Excellent solution to the dispute. There are far too many such artifacts in public and private holdings to extend existing cultural artifact protections beyond current protections. I wondered when I first read of this why the Hopi didn't buy them back at the auction.