Relocation of Moai objects

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Since the removal of the first moai Hoa Hakananai'a from Easter Island in 1869 by the crew of HMS Topaze, 79 complete moai, heads, torsos, Pukao, and moai figurines are also known to have been removed from their original sites, and transferred to either private collections,^[1]the collections of museums (including the Museo Arqueological Padre Sebastian Englert on Easter Island),^[2] or, most recently to the university grounds of the American University, Washington D.C. in 2000. ^[3] Some of the moai have been further transferred between museums and private collections, for reasons such as the moais' preservation, academic research and for public education, or - in the instance of the Moai from Centro Cultural Recoleta - for repatriation after 80 years overseas. ^[4]

Contents 1 Objects in museum collections 2 Issues of authenticity 2.1 Replicas 3 See also 4 Notes and References

[edit] Objects in museum collections

The following table lists the most prominent figures held in museums and collections:

Object	Material	Height	Current location	Acquisition Date	Reference [5]	Notes	Image
Moai	Basalt	3m	Royal Museums of Art and History, Brussels, Belgium.	1934-35	ET.35.5.340 or Pou hakanononga	Removed by the Lavachery, Metraux and Watelin expedition.
Unnamed Moai			Rapa nui			Removed from Hanga Roa in 1929 spent 40 years in Santiago, Chile before being transported to Argentina and making a round trip to the Netherlands. It was returned to Rapa Nui in 2006.[6]
Moai	Tuff	2.94m	Salón de la Polinesia, Museo arqueologico, La Serena, Chile.			Displayed in Europe, then moved to the Salón de la Polinesia[1][2]
Moai	Tuff	2.81m	Corporacion Museo de Arqueologia e Historia Francisco Fonck, Viña del Mar, Chile.		1174 (EISP# MF-VDM-001)
Head	Basalt		Corporacion Museo de Arqueologia e Historia Francisco Fonck, Viña del Mar, Chile.		35-001 (EISP# MF-VDM-002)
Moai	Tuff	2.88m	Museo Arqueological Padre Sebastian Englert, Hanga Roa, Rapa Nui.		MA-IDP025
Head	Tuff	2m (approx)	Museo Arqueological Padre Sebastian Englert, Hanga Roa, Rapa Nui.	c. 2006	Moai from Centro Cultural Recoleta.
Pukau	Red scoria	—	Museo Arqueological Padre Sebastian Englert, Hanga Roa, Rapa Nui.	c. 2006	Pukao from Centro Cultural Recoleta.
Head	Tuff	1.85m	Musee de l'Homme, Paris, France.	1872	MH.30.35.1
Head	Tuff	1.70m	Pavillon des Sessions, Musée du Louvre, Paris, France.	c. 1934-35	MH.35.61.1	Presented to the Chilean government by Henri Lavachery and Alfred Metraux for the Musée de l'Homme after their expedition to Rapa Nui, in 1934-35.
Head	Red scoria	42cm	Pavillon des Sessions, Musée du Louvre, or the Musee de l'Homme, Paris, France.	c. 1934-35	MH.35.61.66
Head	Basalt	58.5cm	Auckland Museum, Auckland, New Zealand.		AM12768
Moai	Trachyte	1.6m	Otago Museum, Dunedin, New Zealand.	1929	D29.6066	Bought by the museum in 1929 from Norman Brander[7]
Moai	Basalt	2.42m	The British Museum, London, UK.	7 November, 1868	1869.10-5.1 Hoa Hakananai'a	see article Hoa Hakananai'a
Moai	Basalt	1.56m	The British Museum, London, UK.	7 November, 1868	1869.10-6.1 Moai Hava
Moai	Basalt	2.24m	National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C., USA.	1886	128,368 (EISP# SI-WDC-001)	Removed from Ahu O'Pepe.
Head	Tuff	19.4cm	National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C., USA.	1886	128,370 (EISP# SI-WDC-002)	Removed from Ahu O'Pepe.
Pukao	Red scoria	101.6cm	National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C., USA.	1886	128,369 (EISP# SI-WDC-003)	Removed from Ahu O'Pepe.
Moai.		2m (approx)	The American University, Washington D.C, USA.	2000	Moai at the American University	Presented in 2000 by the Embassy of Chile as a gift to The American University. The Moai displays a pair of reconstructed eyes.[8][9]

[edit] Issues of authenticity

An unauthenticated moai head entitled "Henry" currently stands in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California. It was obtained in the first half of the 20th century by the founder of the park Dr. Hubert Eaton. Dr. Eaton received the moai in a legal transaction between Rapanui fishermen at Easter Island who were using the head (approx 1m height) as ballast for a boat.^[10] The Memorial Park has no plans for authenticating or testing the moai in the near future.

In 2003, the Chilean government began an investigation into 2 moai heads within a set of 15 other Easter Island artefacts^[11]- the possessions of Hernan Garcia de Gonzalo Vidal - which were put on sale at The Cronos gallery in Miami. After a photographic inspection by Patricia Vargas, an archaeologist at the University of Chile's Easter Island institute, she commented that ""They might be nice art pieces, but I doubt any one is 500 years old. It appears that the cuts have been made with modern machinery and not with stone tools." A meeting arranged between the Chilean newspaper El Mercurio which first reported the sale, and Hernan Garcia Gonzalo de Vidal, later failed to take place when Mr Gonzalo de Vidal became unavailable due to a "family emergency".^[12]

[edit] Replicas

In 1968, a moai (possibly Moai 35-001) was taken from Rapa Nui and displayed in New York City as a publicity stunt to oppose the building of a jet refueling facility on Easter Island.^[13][14][15]Around the time of the campaign and the following tour to Washington D.C. and Chicago, the moai was received by the Lippincott company of North Haven, Connecticut, which since its inception in 1966 had provided a "place for artists to create large sculptures and receive help in transportation and installation of their work"^[16]. In co-operation with the International Fund for Monuments Inc, Lippincott produced a copy from the original moai (before it was confiscated by the Chilean government) and claimed the rights to execute the work on 100 further replicas.

In 1974, Object No. 3 was produced from the copy, and now stands outside the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.

[edit] See also

• Moai
• Easter Island

[edit] Notes and References