french hearing on contested hopi artifacts auction

[xchrom]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_FRANCE_ARTIFACTS_AUCTION?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-04-11-06-00-23

PARIS (AP) -- A French judge will decide Friday whether to let a Paris auction house sell dozens of items central to an Arizona tribe's religious practices.

A lawyer for the Hopi Tribe and the association Survival International argued at a hearing Thursday against the auction of the kachina masks, urging the court to suspend it so that their origin can be determined.

The judge said a ruling will come down Friday midday, just before the sale is scheduled to begin.

The Hopi Tribe contends the items were stolen and has asked the auction house, Neret-Minet Tessier & Sarrou, to prove otherwise. The items are considered communal property of the Hopi Tribe.

[BeyondGeography]

1. It will be interesting to see what the ruling is

Also reminds me that Barry Goldwater was a very devoted kachina collector:

http://www.azcentral.com/specials/special25/articles/1203goldwater2.html

His collection is at the (most awesome) Heard Museum now.

[CountAllVotes]

2. these artifacts should be returned to the Hopi

They were likely stolen and the French have no business having them in their possession nor should they be selling them. They should give them back to the Hopi people.

It is like selling off the remnants of a people, many that are now dead and gone because of genocide. The Hopi and other Native Americans have been traumatized enough already and it is a disgrace and it is illegal to do sell their belongings here in the USA ref: the Antiquities Act of 1906 with stronger legislative actions passed in the late 1990s.

Just a few of the locations involved in southwest of America can be found here:

http://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Learn-About-TR/Themes/Conservation/The-Antiquities-Act-of-1906.aspx