From anthropomorphic figurines to 1,500-year-old Indigenous necklaces, Colombia has recently repatriated 274 ancient objects from the US.
Colombia's Embassy in Washington DC has been collecting the artifacts from around the US since 2018 thanks to "seizures" and voluntary "returns by collectors," said Alhena Caicedo, director of the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History.
The pottery, stone and seashell objects, made by Indigenous communities between 500BC and AD500, were brought back last week by Colombian President Gustavo Petro as he returned from the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Most of those returned to Colombia were handed over voluntarily by an American woman who inherited them from her late husband. He had acquired them in the southwestern Colombian city of Cali in the 1970s. Others had been confiscated by the FBI as part of an agreement between the two countries to return cultural objects that have been sold on the black market.
These artifacts "left this country illegally, we don't know exactly when," said Caicedo.
They come from various regions of Colombia where peoples such as the Tumaco, Narino, Quimbaya, Tayrona and Sinu lived before the arrival of Spanish conquistadors in 1492.
Colombia says it has another 730 artifacts in its diplomatic missions around the world that need repatriating.
In 2021, then vice president Marta Lucia Ramirez asked the prestigious German auction house Gerhard Hirsh to cancel the sale of 25 pieces of pre-Columbian artworks.
Other Latin American countries have made similar requests following complaints from Indigenous people that their assets have been looted.
According to UNESCO, the illegal sale of pillaged cultural artifacts is worth close to $10 billion.
Colombia's Embassy in Washington DC has been collecting the artifacts from around the US since 2018 thanks to "seizures" and voluntary "returns by collectors," said Alhena Caicedo, director of the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History.
The pottery, stone and seashell objects, made by Indigenous communities between 500BC and AD500, were brought back last week by Colombian President Gustavo Petro as he returned from the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Most of those returned to Colombia were handed over voluntarily by an American woman who inherited them from her late husband. He had acquired them in the southwestern Colombian city of Cali in the 1970s. Others had been confiscated by the FBI as part of an agreement between the two countries to return cultural objects that have been sold on the black market.
These artifacts "left this country illegally, we don't know exactly when," said Caicedo.
They come from various regions of Colombia where peoples such as the Tumaco, Narino, Quimbaya, Tayrona and Sinu lived before the arrival of Spanish conquistadors in 1492.
Colombia says it has another 730 artifacts in its diplomatic missions around the world that need repatriating.
In 2021, then vice president Marta Lucia Ramirez asked the prestigious German auction house Gerhard Hirsh to cancel the sale of 25 pieces of pre-Columbian artworks.
Other Latin American countries have made similar requests following complaints from Indigenous people that their assets have been looted.
According to UNESCO, the illegal sale of pillaged cultural artifacts is worth close to $10 billion.
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