FBI Returns Looted Cultural Artifacts to Indonesia
The United States repatriated a group of looted cultural artifacts to Indonesia on July 22 during a meeting in Jakarta between Indonesian president Prabowo Subianto and FBI director Kash Patel, according to the Associated Press. Indonesia’s culture minister Fadi Zon said the items, from Papua, are part of the heritage of the Dani and Asmat tribes and Lake Sentani communities and were returned after FBI cooperation and provenance research determined they had been smuggled out of the country. Artifacts shown at the ceremony included stone axe heads, which Zon said functioned as status symbols, currency, and heirlooms among highland groups such as the Dani. The report also noted that earlier in the month the US embassy in Jakarta announced the return of two 8th-century bronze Avalokitesvara sculptures following an investigation by the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and Homeland Security Investigations, and it framed the returns as part of expanding US–Indonesia cooperation amid Indonesia’s broader efforts to recover objects, including from the Netherlands.
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This story was covered in Restitution Reckonings and Museums on the Brink