Germany has returned two indigenous masks sacred to Colombia after they had been kept in Berlin museum collections for more than 100 years, although questions remain about the safety of the masks for ritual use after being sprayed with toxic pesticides.
The Kogi masks date back to the 15th century and were presented to Colombian President Gustavo Petro by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at a ceremony in Berlin on June 16 during his trip to Germany. The restitution comes after years of back and forth between the governments of the two countries.
“We know masks are sacred to the Kogi,” Steinmeier said at the ceremony, referring to the indigenous group who live in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains in northern Colombia, according to the Associated press. “This restitution is part of an overhaul of how we deal with our colonial past, a process that has begun in many European countries.”
The Kogi masks were legally purchased in 1915 from the son of a late Kogi priest by German ethnologist Konrad Theodor Preuss, the curator of an earlier version from the Ethnological Museum in Berlin. However, according to the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation which oversees Berlin’s museums, the masks should not have been purchased as they are sacred, according to The Guardian.
“They are not a historical artifact, they are alive,” said Arregocés Conchacala Zalabata, a Kogi representative. The Guardian. “With the masks, we hold ceremonies to connect and work with the spirit of the sun, the waters, the mountains and the many species of the world,” Zalabata said, adding that the Kogi community plans to continue using the masks. once they were returned.
However, some experts have warned that a disinfectant used on masks decades ago could be dangerous. The Guardian reported that during the 1940s and 1950s both masks were treated with a disinfectant that has since been banned in the European Union due to links to respiratory problems and fears it could cause cancer.
Rudolf Parzinger, chairman of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, said The Guardian both masks were cleaned and ‘detoxified’ earlier this year and can be handled safely without gloves or face masks, although he added that there are still ‘doubts as to whether they can be worn directly in front of the face. Zalabata said The Guardian that the Zogi had not been informed of any problem with the pesticides.
Last year, Germany agreed to return more than 1000 Benin bronze artefacts housed in the country’s museums in Nigeria. The objects were originally looted by British soldiers in 1897.
