24 Native American Masks, Purchased By Los Angeles Charity To Be Returned To Tribes

After winning a bidding war at a Parisian auction two days ago, the Annenberg Foundation, which paid $530,000 for 24 Native American masks, announced plans to return them to the Hopi and San Carlos Apache tribes, the Associated Press reported.

"These are not trophies to have on one's mantel," Gregory Annenberg Weingarten, director of the Annenberg Foundation, "They do not belong in auction houses or private collections."

Twenty-one of the masks are made of leather, horsehair, wood and feathers and are colored in bright and vivid hues, the AP reported. They were bought at the Drouot auction house and will be returned to the Hopi tribe. The other three are "hood masks" which will be returned to the San Carlos Apache tribe.

The Hopi tribe has been going through numerous legal battles in efforts to stop or delay the masks from being sold last week in a fight to regain their tribal patrimony, according to the AP. The tribe argues the masks "represent ancestral spirits."

The masks are from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the tribe has stated they were stolen from their northern Arizona reservation, the AP reported.

The United States Embassy also asked for a delay in the auction so the artifacts could be investigated and identified to have claim under the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, the AP reported.

According to the Drouot auction house in Paris, France, the total sale was $1.6 million, and included a sacred "Crow Mother" Hopi mask, which sold for twice its original value at $171,000, according to the AP.

Pierre Servan-Schreiber, a lawyer who represents the Hopi tribe told the AP he bought a mask to personally return it to the tribe.

U.S. Ambassador to the UN Cultural Agency, David Killion, said in a statement that the charity's act was "generous," but the Hopi tribe still hopes to regain many masks which are still in commercial circulation, the AP reported.

"The need for real dialogue in advance of such public sales, along with stronger legal protections, was once again made apparent this week," Killion said.

Hopi cultural leader, Sam Tenakhongva said he hopes this can act as an example signifying the tribe's rights to these items.

"Our hope is that this act sets an example for others that items of significant cultural and religious value can only be properly cared for by those vested with the proper knowledge and responsibility," Tenakhongva told the AP. "They simply cannot be put up for sale."

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