₦airaland Forum

The British Museum could soon come under pressure to give back a 'stolen' statue to Easter Island 150 years after it was given to Queen Victoria as a gift.

The Moai statue was allegedly taken from the island by Richard Powell, captain of HMS Topaze, in 1868 before being handed over to the museum by the monarch.

On Easter Island, the world famous statues were built in tribute to tribal leaders after their deaths.

Rapa Nui authorities, 2,000 miles from mainland Chile, have requested help to get the basalt returned to the UNESCO World Heritage Site.


A spokeswoman for the British Museum said: 'We have received no official request here at the British Museum for the statue to be returned to Easter Island.

'The Moai sculpture that we have in the museum is on permanent display to the six million people who walk through our doors every year and we think there is a great public benefit to keeping it here for all of those people to see and appreciate.

'We also believe it is important to represent the history of Easter Island's indigenous community in the British Museum.'







http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6042365/Easter-Islanders-demand-return-statue-given-Queen-Victoria-British-Museum.html

WHAT ARE THE STATUES ON EASTER ISLAND AND WHAT DO THEY MEAN?


What are the statues?


The Moai are monolithic human figures carved by the Rapa Nui people on Easter Island, between 1,250 and 1,500 AD.

All the figures have overly-large heads and are thought to be living faces of deified ancestors.

The 887 statues gaze inland across the island with an average height of 13ft (four metres).

The tallest complete statue that has been unearthed in 33 feet tall and weigh an incredible 82 tons.

Another statue was unearthed in incomplete state. As per scientific calculations, it would have measured 69 feet in height and 270 tons in weight had it been completed.

Different rocks had been used for carving the statues.

Out of 887 known Moai, 834 were carved out from compressed volcanic ash known as tuff.

All the statues always faced away from the oceans. That is, they faced inland.


However, there is one exception. Only one statue faces the ocean and is located at Ahu Akivi, which was a sacred place for the Rapa Nui people.


The possible reason for the statues facing away from the ocean and facing inland towards the villages is that the people of Rapa Nui thought of the statues as protectors of their people overlooking the village.


Nobody really knows how the stone statues that guard Easter Island were moved into position.


Of all statues unearthed, only one was found to be in kneeling positing.

The UK has previously faced calls to return other items like Benin bronzes to Nigeria and Elgin marbles to Greece.

Cambridge University removed a gold cockerel after students demanded the statue be returned to a royal palace in Nigeria from where it was plundered during a 19th century British naval expedition.



BENIN BRONZES: THE CELEBRATED ARTWORKS


The Benin Bronzes are a set of artworks created to celebrate the Benin Kingdom in what is modern-day Nigeria.

Created by the Edo people in the 13th Century, many were looted from the area by British expeditions.

Today museums throughout Britain, Germany and the U.S. hold hundreds of the items despite pleas from Nigeria for the artifacts to be returned.

When colonialists first discovered the pieces adorning the country's royal palaces, they were amazed that such incredible artwork could be created by people so 'primitive'.

Today they remain some of the most celebrated artworks to emerge from Africa, but much like Greece's Elgin Marbles, they are mired in controversy due to the circumstances in which they were acquired.

Greek governments have called for their return to Athens since the 1980s and have even enlisted Amal Clooney to help their campaign.

At first it may appear that the statue heads make up the whole of the statues but archeologists decided to dig and found that full bodies were attached to the heads.

One of the things UK was doing well in former colonies was to take their artifacts and leave

is that not Edo's property

I think they should be awarded one of the greatest thief in history, scientifically it is believed that greed is the origin of war

Explorers:
At first it may appear that the statue heads make up the whole of the statues but archeologists decided to dig and found that full bodies were attached to the heads.

Back then in secondary school ,I read a book "Easter Island mystery" and became fascinated .

It's truly an amazing artistic feat by "the long ears" ( Polynesian tribe of easter island) to create such edifice from rocks basically with monolithic tools such as stone picks and then raise such statues using just poles, pebbles and boulders.

It's obvious, the British people are thieves