PRNewswire
Dec. 10, 2013
Annenberg Foundation Vice President and Director Gregory Annenberg Weingarten today announced that the Annenberg Foundation has purchased 24 sacred Native American artifacts from an auction house in Paris – totaling $530
thousand– for the sole purpose of returning them to their rightful
owners. Twenty-one of these items will be returned to the Hopi Nation
in Arizona, and three artifacts belonging to the San Carlos Apache will be returned to the Apache tribe.
"This is a great day for not only the Hopi people but for the international community as a whole," said Sam Tenakhongva,
a Hopi cultural leader. "The Annenberg Foundation set an example today
of how to do the right thing. Our hope is that this act sets an example
for others that items of significant cultural and religious value can
only be properly cared for by those vested with the proper knowledge and
responsibility. They simply cannot be put up for sale."
The
positive development came after efforts, including those of the U.S.
Embassy, were made to delay the auction of the Hopi and San Carlos
Apache items. Acting on behalf of the advocacy group Survival
International and the Hopi, attorney Pierre Servan-Schreiber went last week before a judge in Paris in an attempt to have the sale of the Hopi items blocked, but on December 6, the court ruled against him. That's when Weingarten made the unprecedented decision to intervene.
More here.
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