Panama is a signatory to the 1970 Convention on the measures that must be adopted to prohibit and prevent the import, export and transfer of illicit ownership of cultural property.
Parts arrived from the Netherlands. Photo: Courtesy
Some 343 archaeological pieces of Panamanian history were recovered and returned to Panama from the Netherlands, reported the Chancellery of the Republic, highlighting that this is a valuable pre-Hispanic ceramic material that represents for Panama, the rescue of part of its identity, of history as a source of social cohesion and collective pride.
The repatriation of these cultural assets was possible thanks to a joint effort by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Culture. “This is the largest repatriation of archaeological pieces in the history of Central America,” said Foreign Minister Erika Mouynes.
According to the Ministry of Culture, these assets will be permanently guarded since they will form part of the collection of the Reina Torres de Araúz Anthropological Museum. The exhibition will previously require a technical-scientific study that provides data on the archaeological sites to which they correspond.
The recovery of these pieces was carried out thanks to the efforts of the Panamanian embassy in the Netherlands, on the instructions of the chief of mission Elizabeth Ward Neiman, who last March contacted officials from the Ministry of Culture reporting details of the finding. The head of the diplomatic mission thanked the support of the KLM airline, the Volkenkunde museum and the higher authorities of the University of Leiden, who expressed their interest in returning such an important collection to its rightful owners.
Panama is a signatory to the 1970 Convention on the measures that must be adopted to prohibit and prevent the import, export and transfer of illicit ownership of cultural property.
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