Mama Uakai and Mama Nuikukui Uakai or Malkutše -‘Great Solar Mask’ and ‘Sun Mask’- are ceremonial masks that for the Kogui people help to maintain balance with nature. They used it in dances and rituals that a century ago ceased to be performed because these precious items were lost. Since 1915, a pair of ancestral treasures, which are more than five centuries old, have been kept in the Museum of Ethnology in Berlin, Germany, after ethnologist Konrad Theodore Preuss purchased them irregularly. Like this carved wooden mask, around the world there are hundreds of archaeological treasures that President Gustavo Petro seeks to restore. A year after he came to power, he had succeeded in repatriating 539 of them. The last precedent for returns of this size came in 2014, with the repatriation of 691 pre-Columbian pieces from Spain, which had been seized in the country a decade earlier.

For the formal surrender of these elements, on 16 June a purification ceremony was held, presided over by an adat ruler, in the ancestral territory of the Tugueka people, on the Kogui reservation, in the municipality of Dibulla, on La Guajira. Present were the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Álvaro Leyva, and the Minister of Culture, Jorge Zorro; director of the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History, Alhena Caicedo; and Vice President Francia Márquez. “Here we are returning some of what was taken from them many years ago. We hope this is part of the country’s living memory.” said the vice president.

Despite not attending the ceremony, behind efforts to achieve this important step in cultural and spiritual healing is former undersecretary for multilateral affairs and now ambassador to Austria, Laura Gil. Since his arrival at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in August 2022, he has been tasked with landing presidential proposals to repatriate hundreds of growing heirlooms. The next big milestone is the return of the statue of St. Augustine who was found in Berlin, in the same museum where Kogui’s mask is.

Initially, he was tasked with identifying how the pieces were stolen and where they were. He said that they had successfully established the repatriation of elements present in institutions in Australia, England, Switzerland, Belgium and the United States in the future, as reported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to EL PAÍS. In parallel, they are strengthening policies against the illegal traffic of art and inheritance. Polri has received special seminars and training.

Another line, much more complex, relates to items that are in private collections. Many of them are family heirlooms which have on several occasions been voluntarily returned. In other cases, when the owners refuse to hand them over, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has carried out a process of diplomatic dialogue and even legal proceedings, as happened recently in Argentina. And an extra line devoted to identifying pre-Columbian treasures auctioned in art markets in various countries. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs instructed all the ambassadors to find them.

The pieces that have been found so far under the self-styled ‘reform government’ are various, some of a ritual nature, some extravagant and some that are used daily and made of a variety of materials, from ceramic, stone or shell to gold. The inventory includes cups, pots, alcarrazas, stamps, necklaces, prints, ocarinas, vessels, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures, scrolls and pendants. Moreover, they belong to different ethnic groups across the country.

The last major wave that Gil rescued before positioning himself as ambassador, on August 4, came from Italy, a country deeply committed to the fight to restore heritage, according to several officials involved in the process. The pieces were returned to Colombia in very bad condition, as they underwent successive confiscations and confiscations. Gil indicated that he hoped the task to which he dedicated a large part of his administration would continue at the same pace and that “an inventory of the thousands of pieces that are abroad will be built up, and which are the object of urgent efforts for their return to Colombia given their historical value or symbolically, he insisted that these assets be publicly accessible, so that “Colombians can learn about these treasures.”

subscribe here to the EL PAÍS bulletin about Colombia and get all the important information about the country’s current affairs.