Swiss return three mummies to Bolivia

ZURICH

Switzerland on Nov. 20 returned centuries-old mummified bodies to Bolivia, acknowledging that they had been acquired without the consent of their traditional owners.

The three mummies were officially restituted to Bolivian Minister of Culture and Decolonization Sabina Orellana Cruz during a ceremony at the Geneva Ethnographic Museum (MEG).

"What we are seeking here, beyond the restitution, is ethical reparations," museum director Carine Ayele Durand told attendees.

The ceremony came amid a growing movement of Western institutions returning artefacts looted or obtained under dubious circumstances in centuries past.

In a crouched position, the three mummified bodies - two adults and a child - and their shrouds made of braided vegetal fibre had been delicately placed inside wooden crates stamped with a diplomatic seal.

The mummies were not on display during Monday's ceremony, for "ethical" reasons, the MEG said.

"Today, we are reunited with our roots," Cruz told AFP after the ceremony.

"Restitution is synonymous with decolonization," she said, hailing the European countries now working to return looted objects and human remains.

The MEG says it had informed Bolivia of the existence of the three mummies and set up the protocols for their restitution as part of an ongoing strategy to "decolonize the collections."

Unlike those who say artifacts already in museums should stay there, the MEG says it is intent on facilitating the return of all human remains, funeral relics and sacred objects. And last year, it decided that it would no longer exhibit human remains without the explicit consent of the state or community concerned.