The heated plan to auction off 24 Native American masks in Paris has come to a happy ending. The Hopi tribe has been trying to take legal action to delay the sale of the masks, and their efforts were rejected in the courts. The tribe believes that the masks, which date from the late 19th to early 20th century, were taken illegally from a northern Arizona reservation in the early 20th century.
And clearly they did not want them auctioned off. Now, some charitable foundation has come through at the last minute, as an anonymous bidder paid $530,000 for the masks and will return them to the Hopi and San Carlos Apache tribes.
As Gregory Annenberg Weingarten, director of the Annenberg Foundation said, “These are not trophies to have on one’s mantel. They do not belong in auction houses or private collections.”
Three hood masks will go back to the San Carlos Apaches and twenty-one colored masks made of horsehair, wood, feathers and leather will be given back to the Hopis.
Even the US Embassy got involved in the act, calling for a delay on the sale so that tribal representatives could come to France and identify the masks. After the sale, David Killion, the US Ambassador to the UN cultural agency issues a statement with the US Embassy that said the charity’s move was a “generous act.”
In a statement this week, Sam Tenakhongva, a Hopi cultural leader, said “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. They simply cannot be put up for sale.”