The Manhattan District Attorney’s office is returning eight trafficked artefacts to Peruvian authorities. A majority of the objects in question originate from Peru’s North Coast, a heavily looted area rich with pre-Columbian tombs and relics from the Moche civilisation, a non-monolithic group that specialised in the production of gold and ceramics from 100AD to 800AD. Many of these relics were absorbed into international looting networks and funneled into institutions in the United States with falsified provenances.
Among the pieces turned over to Peruvian authorities during a recent ceremony at the country's consulate in New York is a striking Chavín ceramic effigy bottle, dating from between 1000BC and 700BC, molded in the shape of a man’s head. Also returning to Peru is a gilded copper mask created by the Moche people, dating back to 300BC. The gilded copper mask may depict the god Aiapæc, whose signature visual features were the fangs he bared to ward off evil. Moche artisans were on the cutting edge of metalworking technology, among the first to develop techniques like electrochemical replacement plating before they entered common usage. The mask hails from Loma Negra, a site in northern Peru filled with deep-shaft tombs that was heavily looted in the 1960s and 70s.
Officials from Peru and the Manhattan District Attorney's Office during a repatriation ceremony at the Peruvian consulate in New York Courtesy the Manhattan District Attorney's Office
“I am proud that this is the second repatriation we have had with Peru under my administration,” District Attorney Alvin Bragg said at a 15 May ceremony at the Peruvian consulate. “Many of the objects being repatriated today are from areas of Peru that have been repeatedly targeted by looters, but today we were able to undo some of the harm they have caused.”
The Antiquities Trafficking Unit of Bragg's office has overseen the return of more than 2,350 antiquities valued at over $250m. Just this year, Bragg’s team has facilitated the return of two Khmer artefacts connected to the disgraced dealer Subhash Kapoor to Cambodia and 11 antiquities collectively valued at nearly $1m to the people of Greece.
Peruvian heritage discoveries have also been front and center in the news this year. The 5,000-year old disinterred remains of a woman with her hair and nails intact were recently found at Áspero, an ancient Peruvian settlement belonging to the Caral civilisation, considered the oldest in the Americas.
