The objects had belonged to her father, Larry Walsh, an archaeologist and curator of the Limerick Museum, who had always cherished them due to his passionate interest in African and Aboriginal cultures, but also believed that such objects belonged to the peoples from whom they had originated.
Daughter Isabella: “It was one of my father’s final wishes that the artefacts be repatriated. He passed away 10 years ago and I didn’t really know where to begin. It’s taken me a long time to just process his passing and all the changes that have happened in my life … He was adamant that this was to happen.”
She had no idea how to repatriate the objects until she read a Guardian article in May about an American who had returned 30 antiquities to Italy. He in turn was inspired by another report about a man who sent back 19 antiquities to their countries of origin amid growing coverage of looted ancient artefacts.
Jay Stanley handed over vases and figurines dating from the sixth to the third centuries BC, found at the home of his late father, after reading that John Gomperts, from Washington, had repatriated ancient artefacts that he had inherited from his grandmother to Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Pakistan.
