2023-08-21 19:49:29
At the headquarters of the General Consulate of Colombia in the city of Frankfurt am Main, Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva and the Colombian ambassador to Germany, Yadir Salazar, received 77 pre-Columbian pieces that were in the hands of private collectors in the federal state of Rhineland- Palatinate, West-Central Germany, since the 1970s.
The foreign minister signed the act with which the receipt of the pieces by the Colombian Government was made official.
The pieces were recovered within the framework of the negotiations carried out by Ambassador Salazar, in dialogue with the law firm Martini-Mogg-Vogt, administrators of the inheritance of a German family that declared that they had acquired the pieces in Colombia in 1974.
In the process, the Colombian embassy in Germany, in coordination with the Directorate of Cultural Affairs of the Foreign Ministry, submitted the photographic record of the collection
-integrated by 81 pieces- to the concept of the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History, Icahn, whose archaeologists determined that 77 of them belong to the archaeological patrimony of the Nation, for which reason they were subject to the special regulations on archaeological assets established by the Colombian regulations.
Pieces repatriated from Germany
Regarding the origin of the pieces, Icahn pointed out that they present visible characteristics related to manufacturing styles of pre-Hispanic ceramic and metal pieces from the Tairona, San Agustín, Guane, Calima and Quimbaya archaeological regions.
At the end of the legal recovery process, the Colombian consul general in Frankfurt am Main, Lennin Gell Hernández, was commissioned by the ambassador to attend the handover ceremony on behalf of Colombia by the German representatives of the family that was in possession of the pieces and the signing of the Act of delivery to the Government of Colombia of the 77 pieces, which took place in the municipality of Sankt Johann, district of Mayen-Koblenz.
The authorities confirmed that the course of the delivery and reception phase, as well as packaging and transport of the pieces, was carried out in strict compliance with the procedures and protocols stipulated by the Icahn, according to which the pieces will remain at the Consulate headquarters. General of Colombia in Frankfurt am Main until his final repatriation to Colombia.
The chancellor, Álvaro Leyva, signs the act.
This recovery occurs two months after the delivery by Germany to Colombia of the two pre-Hispanic ritual masks of the Kogui people, on June 16, during the visit of President Gustavo Petro to that country, which was also led by the ambassador Yadir Salazar under the instructions of Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva.
“Having recovered these pieces to be able to return them to our country soon and that they are finally in the hands of their rightful owners is like traveling to the past with a vocation for the future,” said the chancellor.
Pieces repatriated from Germany
These 77 pre-Hispanic pieces are added to the 539 pieces of the Nation’s Archaeological and Cultural Heritage that were found in Germany, the United States, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, which have been recovered during the first year of the Petro Government. in application of the government policy for the preservation and recovery of the Archaeological and Cultural Heritage of Colombia.
In the case of Germany, according to the Government, Ambassador Yadir Salazar continues to take the pertinent steps, at the highest level of the country’s authorities, for the recovery of the collection of lithics from the San Agustín Culture found in the Museum Berlin Ethnology.
Pieces repatriated from Germany
The 539 repatriated pieces
The first return took place on September 25, 2022, when 274 pieces were returned from the United States. The second occurred almost two months later, on November 15, when 76 pieces that were in Bern, The Hague and Paris were grouped in France to return on the presidential plane.
For November 30, 2022, the third return dates back. Two archaeological pieces were brought from the United Kingdom.
The fourth return occurred on January 21 of this year, when 179 pieces that were in Italy were sent to France to return on the presidential plane. And on April 22, six more pieces were repatriated from the United States, marking the fifth return.
The sixth return was on June 17, with two pieces, Kogui masks, being returned from Germany.
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
Next, read the delivery certificate.
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