A bid to restore spiritual artifacts to Hopi and Apache tribes

[n2doc]

By John M. Glionna
December 22, 2013, 9:27 p.m.
They were two veteran emissaries for a Los Angeles-based philanthropy, tasked with staging a clandestine operation to rescue a series of Native American spiritual artifacts from public sale half a world away.

This month, Annenberg Foundation staffers Allison Gister and Carol Laumen found themselves making anonymous telephone bids at a Paris auction to secure rarities considered sacred by the Hopi and San Carlos Apache tribes in Arizona, including exotic mask-like visages that had been lost — some say looted — over the last century.

For 80 fast-paced minutes, the women huddled in Gister's office, eyes on their computer screens, phones held to their ears. Secrecy was crucial so as not to drive up prices, or hopes. Not even the tribes knew.

Directing a Paris auction house worker to place her bids using philanthropy money, Gister, a Des Moines native whose French amounted to an 18-month crash course, yelled "Go! Go!" It was often mistaken by the worker as "No! No!"

Laumen, a Canadian fluent in the language, urged: "Don't say 'Go! Go!' Say 'Oui! Oui!'"

It worked. Twenty-one kachina masks for the Hopis and three sacred gaan headdresses for the Apaches were purchased for a total of $530,000 and soon will be returned to the two tribes.

more

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-hopi-masks-20131223,0,2845422.story

[Gothmog]

1. I saw this on the Rachel Maddow show

This story really made me smile. There are good people in the world

[liberal_at_heart]

2. That is great.

[2naSalit]

3. That's really cool

Those folks are really ethical heroes. Good on them and a very big thanks from me.

[MoreGOPoop]

4. Righteous

K & R

[Berlum]

5. Soyal - Winter Solstice

Free clue for Republicons jerking the 'Christmas War' meme to divide and confuse people, and to line their own pockets with ill-gotten filthy lucre: this ceremony has been done for many centuries before the birth of Christ, who most Biblical scholars say was likely born in the spring or summer, but whose celebration was moved to the winter solstice to TAKE ADVANTAGE of the tradition around the world of having a community ceremony at this time of year. So shut your whiney, troublemaking yaps, and let everyone enjoy the season -- Christian, Native, Zorastrian, or whatever.

[niyad]

8. thank you for that lovely image.

it amuses me no end, when I hear the "war on christmas" whiners, to remind them that they STOLE my holiday, and I would appreciate them using its proper name.

[n2doc]

12. Thanks!

I'be been lucky enough to see a few of the ceremonies they open to the public, and they are magical. People need to realize that when the person puts on the mask, they become a God on Earth, to the people of that group. They are much more than just some equivalent of 'priestly robes'.

[JDPriestly]

6. Who or what placed the artifacts up for the auction?

Who possessed the artifacts before they were sold bak for the Hopis and Apachis?

Were they in a museum collection or in the possession of a company or a private party?

[niyad]

9. it is all about the money, as witness the comments below:

. . .



The legal proceedings were brought by the organisation Survival International, which defends the rights of tribal peoples.

The US Ambassador to France, Charles Rivkin, has also said he is "very concerned" about the
sale.However, auctioneer Gilles Neret-Minet of auction house Neret-Minet Tessier & Sarrou had warned that a ruling to stop the sale could potentially force French museums to empty out their collections.

"If we lose this case, there will be no more sales of objects of indigenous art in France," he said before the court ruling.

The Paris court sided with the French auction house, saying there were no grounds to stop sale because the items were acquired legally by a French collector during a 30-year stay in the US.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22119146

[niyad]

7. k and r for some really great news.

[KoKo]

10. Recommend!

[KoKo]

11. Long past time to resturn Artifacts and Bodies/Bones to our Native American

Peoples. It's disgraceful how long this has been going on.

[niyad]

13. this huffpo article has a slide show of some of the masks.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/12/hopi-tribe_n_4432781.html