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Administrative Tribunal of Rouen, Decision No. 702737, December 27, 2007 (Maori Head case)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 June 2008

Marine Bel ,
Michael Berger  and
Robert K. Paterson
Marine Bel
Affiliation:
Master 1 de Droit International, Université Jean Moulin Lyon III, an exchange student at the Faculty of Law, University of British Columbia
Michael Berger
Affiliation:
LL.B. candidate at the Faculty of Law, University of British Columbia
Robert K. Paterson
Affiliation:
Faculty of Law, University of British Columbia. Email: paterson@law.ubc.caat
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Extract

In October 2007, the mayor of the French city of Rouen agreed to return to New Zealand a preserved tattooed head of a Maori warrior (called toi moko by Maori) from that city's Museum of Natural History, whose collection the head had been part of since 1875. The decision to return the head was based on an initiative by the Museum of New Zealand (Te Papa Tongarewa), which has successfully secured the return of other such heads from museums in various European countries and the United States. Before the Rouen head could be handed over, however, the French Ministry of Culture intervened, arguing that its return was unauthorized under French law as being part of a French museum collection and thus inalienable.

Type
Case Note
Information
International Journal of Cultural Property , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , May 2008 , pp. 223 - 226
Copyright
Copyright © International Cultural Property Society 2008

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