|
 Pedro Edmunds Paoa said Easter Island had a "thousand" of its
iconic statues, known as the Moai, "both buried, ignored and
discarded" and lacked the means to maintain them.
"Those thousand are falling apart because they are made of a
volcanic stone, because of the wind and the rain are. We need
global technology for their conservation," he said.
He said one statue returned to the island from the Argentine
capital Buenos Aires "four or five years ago" was now housed in
a square where stray dogs urinated on it.
His comments will add weight to the argument of the British
Museum to keep artifacts that originate from other nations in
London where they are carefully curated and popular exhibits
with visitors from around the world.
Last month, a delegation of Chilean officials and Easter Island
dignitaries including Paoa's brother, the Rapa Nui Council of
Elders President Carlos Edmunds Paoa, traveled to London to
appeal for the return of the seven-foot (2.13-meter) tall basalt
figure, known as "Hoa Hakananai'a," meaning "lost or stolen
friend" in the local language.
The statue was among 900 statues or "Moai," meaning "ancestors,"
carved by islanders between 1100 and 1600 A.D.
It was taken from the island, located 2,480 miles (3,990 km)
west of the Chilean capital Santiago, in 1868 by Richard Powell,
the captain of HMS Topaze, and presented to Queen Victoria who
later gave it to the British Museum.
[to top of second column] |
Pedro Edmunds Paoa said there had been intense debate on the island
about whether the Hoa Hakananai'a should be returned or not.
"Are we going to bring the ancestors back? Fantastic," he said. "We
are going to bring them back and we are going to place them where?
"That Moai is in a museum where six million people come each year to
visit it."
He suggested that he would prefer a financial commitment from the
British Museum to help in the preservation of all Rapa Nui
monuments.
"It would not be an economic agreement, it would be an agreement to
help Rapa Nui in what needs to be done in Rapa Nui for
conservation", he said, using the ancestral name of the island.
The British Museum was not immediately available for comment.
Chile's ministry of heritage, which has lobbied for the statue's
return, declined to comment.
(Reporting by Marion Giraldo; Writing by Aislinn Laing; Editing by
Sandra Maler)
[© 2018 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2018 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content. |
