Paul Voogt, curator of the Missiemuseum, travelled to the Vatican and Papua New Guinea with funding from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) to trace the origins of the five skulls.
But when he arrived in the country he found that the local people were not interested in repatriating the artworks, which were taken by missionaries from the Society of the Divine Word at the start of the 20th century.
“They think it was too long ago, no longer know who they were and they have made a large number of new skulls in the meantime. Moreover, they could be the skulls of enemies and people believe that could bring bad luck.”
Researcher Jos van Beurden is pleased with the origin investigation of the Mission Museum and calls on other museums to do the same. Although he thinks that especially the small museums do not have the money or the time for it.
He also believes that museums should talk to so-called communities of origin about the question: what to do with skulls and human remains that we never know where they came from? “Then there can be a monument, or a collective funeral.”
