2022 – 24 Items Associated with Dance Ceremonies, Returned to the Indigenous Yaqui People in Mexico
Inventory Numbers: 1935.47, 1937.19, and others
On February 19, the Mexican Embassy submitted a request to the National Museums of World Culture from Mexico's Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the repatriation of 24 Yaqui artefacts. In May 2021, the National Museums of World Culture sought permission from the Swedish government to return the items. In May 2022, the government granted approval for the transfer to the Yaqui people in Mexico. The handover ceremony took place on June 3, 2022, at the Mexican Embassy residence in Stockholm.
Read more here: The Yaqui Case
2006 – G’psgolox Totem Pole Returned to the Haisla People, Haisla First Nation (Kitamaat Village Council), Canada
Inventory Number: 1929.02.0001
The totem pole was built in 1872 in honor of Chief G’psgolox of the Eagle Clan. It was acquired by the Museum of Ethnography in 1929 by Consul Olof Hanson following negotiations with the Haisla people and permission from Canadian authorities. The newly constructed Museum of Ethnography at Gärdet was inaugurated in March 1980, featuring a ten-meter-high hall specially built for the totem pole.
During the 1970s and 1980s, the Museum of Ethnography was contacted regarding the G’psgolox totem pole and a possible return. In 1991, an official claim was submitted by the Haisla people. Then Minister of Culture Birgit Friggebo decided in February 1994 that the totem pole would be transferred to the Kitamaat Village Council as a gift. In exchange, the Museum of Ethnography was promised a canoe and a replica of the totem pole. The new pole was erected in 2000 outside the museum, where it still stands today.
The G’psgolox totem pole remained in Sweden for several years, awaiting the establishment of a suitable museum in Kitamaat. It was officially handed over on March 14, 2006, in a ceremony in front of the Museum of Ethnography. In 2012, Chief Dan Paul decided that the pole should return to nature. It now rests at a burial site in Kemano, British Columbia, where it is left to decay.
1994 – Part of the Pre-Columbian Relief “La Amelia Stele” Returned to Guatemala
Inventory Number: 1991.18.0002
The Mayan stele, dating back to the 9th century, was erected at La Amelia, Guatemala. A stele is a decorated standing stone. The lower part of the stele was cut off by looters in 1965 and smuggled to New York. The relief, depicting a jaguar, was purchased by Swedish collector Ernest Erickson and donated to the National Museum in Stockholm after his death.
In 1991, the artifact was deposited at the Museum of Ethnography. Following a government decision, the museum returned the relief to the Guatemalan government in 1994. It is now housed at the Museo Nacional de Arqueología e Etnología in Guatemala City, alongside the upper part of the stele.
2009: Three remains to the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
Possibly collected in 1841 during a world voyage aboard the Caledonia.
Inventory Number: 0000.00.0652a-c
2007 – Human Remains to Australia (continuation from 2004)
Collected during Erik Mjöberg’s expedition to Western Australia in 1910–1911, from collections 1916.03 and 3001.27.
2004 – Human Remains to Australia
Collected during Erik Mjöberg’s expedition to Western Australia in 1910–1911, from collections 1894.05, 1912.01, and 1916.03.
1997: Half a skull from Tasmania returned to the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre Inc., Australia
Acquired in 1908 from Birger Mörner.
Inventory Number: 1908.10.0003
1990: A tattooed Māori head returned to the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
Acquired in the 1830s from Carl Johan Ekströmer.
Inventory Number: 1830.01.0001
2023: 477 Sami artifacts from 33 collections transferred to Ájtte, the Swedish Mountain and Sami Museum in Jokkmokk
Link to the database
The artifacts were moved from the Museum of Ethnography as a long-term loan when Ájtte Museum opened in the late 1980s. In 2020, Ájtte requested ownership of the items, and on February 2, 2023, ownership was officially transferred.
Press release: The National Museums of World Culture Transfers Sami Collection to Ájtte Museum | Världskulturmuseerna (mynewsdesk.com)
2022 – Mycenaean Gold Ring from Greece (Deposition from the Nobel Foundation)
Inventory Number: BEK 1955.03
The gold ring was part of Nobel Prize winner Georg von Békésy's collection, which was donated to the Nobel Foundation upon his death. Items from the collection were deposited at various museums in Stockholm, and this ring ended up at the Museum of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Antiquities. It is a Mycenaean gold signet ring excavated on Rhodes in the 1920s and incorporated into the collection at the Archaeological Museum of Rhodes. The ring was stolen during World War II.
The National Museums of World Culture assisted the Greek Embassy in investigating the provenance of the object and facilitating discussions with the Nobel Foundation. The repatriation took place on May 19, 2022, at the Nobel Foundation's premises on Sturegatan in Stockholm.
The so-called Gothenburg Collection.
Link to the database
The artifacts were owned by the City of Gothenburg but managed by the National Museums of World Culture. In 2008, Peru requested the return of 89 Paracas textiles that had been illegally exported in the 1930s. The repatriation process began in 2014, with the objects being returned in stages via the Museum of World Culture. The final textiles were transferred to the Museo Nacional de Arqueología Antropología e Historia and the Ministry of Culture in Peru in 2021.
Listen to the episode of the Museum of World Culture's podcast Inside The Box about the Paracas Textiles.