LOS ANGELES (AP) – The United States (US) on Friday returned several Peruvian antiquities, including the intricate knotwork artefacts known as khipus, in a ceremony at the Los Angeles consulate.
The brief event came amid a push in recent years to have museums, universities and governments worldwide return cultural pieces to their home countries and tribal nations.
Indigenous and African communities, in particular, have pressed institutions to reckon with their colonialist pasts and repatriate stolen or looted antiquities.
The items returned to the Peruvian consul general included two khipus, intricately knotted and coloured sets of cords that experts believe were used by the Incas to count and keep records.
The repatriated khipus were turned over to federal investigators two years ago by a private art gallery. They may have been donated to the gallery or abandoned there sometime between 2005 and 2012, authorities said.
Also repatriated were several sculptures that Los Angeles-based agents from the US Department of Homeland Security had seized in a since-closed investigation dating back 15 years.
