Relocation of moai
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Since the removal from Easter Island (Rapa Nui) in 1868 of the moai now displayed at the British Museum, a total of 12 moai are known to have been removed from Easter Island and to remain overseas.{{cite web |title=Easter Island Statue |url=http://www.otagomuseum.govt.nz/easter_island_statue.html |website=Otago Museum |access-date=10 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111110165713/http://www.otagomuseum.govt.nz/easter_island_statue.html |archive-date=10 November 2011}}{{Cite book |last=Van Tilburg |first=Jo Anne |author-link=Jo Anne Van Tilburg |title=Remote Possibilities: Hoa Hakananai'a and HMS Topaze on Rapa Nui |series=British Museum Research Papers |volume=158 |date=2006 |publisher=British Museum Press | location=London |isbn=978-0-86159-158-9}} Some of the moai have been further transferred between museums and private collections, for reasons such as the moai's preservation, academic research and for public education.
Objects returned to Easter Island
In 2006, one relocated moai was repatriated from the Centro Cultural Recoleta in Argentina after 80 years overseas.{{cite news |title=Easter Island statue heads home |url=https://www.theage.com.au/technology/easter-island-statue-heads-home-20060418-ge25co.html |access-date=10 March 2022 |work=The Age |date=18 April 2006 |language=en}}
In 2022, one moai held in the Chilean National Museum of Natural History in Santiago was returned to the island after over 150 years abroad.{{cite web |title=Easter Island Moai statue begins journey home, 150 years after removal to Santiago |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/22/easter-island-moai-statue-begins-journey-home-150-years-after-removal-to-santiago |website=The Guardian |access-date=11 March 2022 |language=en |date=22 February 2022}}
Objects in museum collections
The following table lists the most prominent moai held in museums and collections:
| class="wikitable sortable"
!Material !Height !Current location !! Country !Acquisition Date !class=unsortable|Notes !class=unsortable|Image | |
| Basalt
|2.42 m |The British Museum, London | United Kingdom
|7 November 1868 |1869.10-5.1 |Taken from Easter Island (Rapa Nui) in 1868 by the crew of HMS Topaze and is now on display in the British Museum. (Full article: Hoa Hakananai'a) |
| Basalt
|1.56 m |The British Museum, London | United Kingdom
|7 November 1868 |1869.10-6.1 Moai Hava |In the British Museum's Oceanic collection |
| Tuff
|1.85 m | France
|1872 |71.1930.35.1 |Formerly presented in the Musée de l'Homme, then moved to the new Musée du Quai Branly.{{cite web |title=Déplacement exceptionnel d'une tête de Moai au musée du quai Branly |url=https://www.quaibranly.fr/uploads/media/Communique_de_presse_croise_DEF.pdf |website=Musée du quai Branly |access-date=14 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110929005715/https://www.quaibranly.fr/uploads/media/Communique_de_presse_croise_DEF.pdf |archive-date=29 September 2011}} | {| class="wikitable sortable" |
| File:Musee du quai Branly Easter Island head.jpg |
|-
|Lapilli tuff
|2.24 m
|Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.{{cite web |title=Stone Figure |website=Smithsonian Museum of Natural History |url=http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/3817ff4b9-3688-4b18-b16e-0520772be50c}}{{cite web |last=Baltz |first=Jocelyn |title=The Moai of Easter Island |website=Smithsonian Collections Blog |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |date=12 December 2012 |url=https://si-siris.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-moai-of-easter-island_12.html}}|| United States
|-
|Tuff
|1.194 m
|Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.{{cite web |title=Stone Figure Head And Shoulders |website=Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History |url=http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/349a0dd3e-0c71-42b1-9ed3-d2631e32968a}}|| United States
|
|-
|Tuff
|1.70 m
|Pavillon des Sessions, Musée du Louvre, Paris || France
|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.
|-
|Red scoria
|0.42 m
|Pavillon des Sessions, Musée du Louvre, or the Musée de l'Homme, Paris || France
|1934-35
|MH.35.61.66
|Removed by the Lavachery, Metraux and Watelin expedition.
|
|-
|Basalt
|3 m
|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. The oldest known statue to date.[https://www.exhibitionsinternational.be/documents/catalog/9789461618801.xml?lang=nl&open=FILTER%5CJAAR%5C2024 Pou Hakanononga, Een beeld van Paaseiland]
|-
|-
|Trachyte
|1.6 m
|Otago Museum, Dunedin || New Zealand
|1929
|D29.6066
|Moai and pukao were removed from Rapa Nui in 1881 by Alexander Ariʻipaea Salmon and shipped aboard the Nautilus to the Maison Brander plantation in Pape'ete, Tahiti. They were sold to Otago Museum in 1928 by Norman Brander and arrived in Dunedin on 15 April 1929.{{cite journal |last1=Simpson |first1=Dale F. Jr |last2=McKenzie |first2=Ross |last3=Moreno Pakarati |first3=Cristián |title=The history of a moai & a pukao from Otago Museum, Aotearoa |journal=Moe Varua Rapa Nui |date=February 2020 |volume=12 |issue=144 |pages=6–9 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344109032 |access-date=10 March 2022 |language=en}}
|-
|Tuff
|2.81 m
|Corporacion Museo de Arqueologia e Historia Francisco Fonck, Viña del Mar || Chile
|
|1174 (EISP# MF-VDM-001)
|
|-
|Basalt
|
|Corporacion Museo de Arqueologia e Historia Francisco Fonck, Viña del Mar || Chile
|
|35-001 (EISP# MF-VDM-002)
|
|
|-
|Tuff
|2.94 m
|Salón de la Polinesia, Museo arqueologico, La Serena || Chile
|
|
|Displayed in Europe, then moved to the Salón de la Polinesia in Chile.{{Cite web|title=Portal DIBAM|url=http://www.patrimoniocultural.gob.cl/|access-date=2021-03-29|website=www.patrimoniocultural.gob.cl}}{{Citation|last=Rocha|first=Ronai|title=Moai em La Serena|date=2005-01-11|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/ronai/217347898/|access-date=2021-03-29}}
|-
|-
|}
Issues of authenticity
The issue of authenticity of moai heads may never be fully resolved. The fact is that the rocks used to carve the heads are as old as the volcano eruption that formed them, so carbon 14 testing reveals no evidence of authenticity. The age of the moai heads on the island cannot be determined, and off the island, heads can only be determined to be made from Easter Island volcanic rock or not made from Easter Island volcanic rock. Determining the age of an Easter Island moai head is therefore an art, and not a science. Field experts make judgments and express opinions about what tools they feel were used and attempt to tie an age to that opinion. Such a condition means that moai heads cannot be tested with hope of determining authenticity; they may, however, be brought under suspicion of being fakes. As with any object of antiquity, the patrimony, the history and story of the heads, is an important part in determining authenticity.{{citation needed|date=February 2014}}
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 allegedly 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.{{cite web |last1=James |first1=Steven |title=The South Seas Lapidary Mystery |url=http://www.lapidaryjournal.com/archive/50/nov1954.cfm |website=Lapidary Journal |access-date=10 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080222101413/http://www.lapidaryjournal.com/archive/50/nov1954.cfm |archive-date=22 February 2008 |date=1954}} 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 two moai heads within a set of 15 other Easter Island artefacts{{cite news |last1=Porteous |first1=Clinton |title=Chile probes Easter Island artefacts |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2633865.stm |access-date=10 March 2022 |work=BBC |date=7 January 2003}} — 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 Gonzalo de Vidal became unavailable due to a "family emergency".{{cite news |last1=Franklin |first1=Jonathan |title=Mystery looms over stone heads |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/jan/11/highereducation.artsandhumanities |access-date=10 March 2022 |work=The Guardian |date=11 January 2003 |language=en}}
= 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.Glueck, Grace. New York Times, (October 22, 1968) "5-Ton Head From Easter Island is put on a Pedestal".{{cite web |last1=Slonim |first1=Jeffrey |title=Madison Site Specific |url=http://www.landmarksfoundation.org/articles/MadisonSiteSpecificArticle.html |publisher=Madison Magazine |access-date=10 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080208121641/http://www.landmarksfoundation.org/articles/MadisonSiteSpecificArticle.html |archive-date=8 February 2008 |date=1999}}{{cite web |last1=Holmes |first1=Greg |last2=Green |first2=Samuel |title=The Lope |url=http://thelope.com/archive/2006_04_01_archive.html |website=thelope.com |access-date=10 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120208104734/http://thelope.com/archive/2006_04_01_archive.html |archive-date=8 February 2012 |date=15 April 2006}} 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".{{Cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/collections_list.cfm/fuseaction/Collections.ViewCollection/CollectionID/9147/search_letter/L |title=Smithsonian archives of American art. (September 23, 2007) List of Collections and Interviews A-Z. |access-date=September 13, 2007 |archive-date=July 6, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070706083556/http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/collections_list.cfm/fuseaction/Collections.ViewCollection/CollectionID/9147/search_letter/L |url-status=dead }} 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.
Moai replicas are displayed, among others, outside the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County; at the Auckland War Memorial Museum in New Zealand;{{Cite web|title=Auckland Museum - Moai replica|url=https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/collection/object/am_humanhistory-object-101962}} and at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.{{Cite web|title=American Museum of Natural History - Moai cast|url=https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent/pacific-peoples/easter-island-moai-cast}}
A group of seven replica moai arranged in an Ahu exist in the city of Nichinan, Miyazaki Prefecture on the Japanese island of Kyushu. The statues were built and installed in 1996 for the opening of the seaside park Sun Messe Nichinan, of which the statues are the park's centrepiece.{{Cite web|title=Sun Messe Nichinan|url=http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/sun-messe|access-date=2021-01-11|website=Atlas Obscura|language=en}}
In 2000, the Embassy of Chile in the United States presented a moai replica, with a pair of reconstructed eyes, to the American University.[http://www.american.edu/about/timeline.html Welcome to American University, Washington, DC USA][https://www.flickr.com/photos/meanlouise/824503169/ The Moai sur Flickr : partage de photos]
See also
Notes and references
{{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Relocation Of Moai Objects}}
Category:History of Easter Island