The human remains had been brought to Switzerland by Gustave Ferriere, the German consul in La Paz.
He sent these mummified bodies and their shrouds to Geneva’s geographical society in 1893.
The MEG had informed Bolivia of the existence of the three mummies and set up the protocols for their restitution as part of an ongoing strategy to “decolonise the collections”.
“This is a fundamental event for our states and our peoples,” said Bolivian Minister of Culture, Decolonisation and Depatriarchalisation, Sabina Orellana Cruz.
The restitution ceremony, which took place at the MEG, was broadcast live on Bolivian state television. The mummies, two adults and a child, will go to Bolivia’s National Museum of Archaeology.
They come from the Coro region, a town perched at an altitude of 4,000 metres, 80 kilometres southwest of the capital, La Paz. They date from before Inca cultural domination.
In 2019, the 500-year-old mummy of an Inca girl was repatriated to Bolivia after 129 years in Michigan University. It was the first time human remains have been returned to Bolivia which has in recent years made concerted efforts to reclaim its scattered cultural patrimony.a 500-year old mummy girl was repatriated to Bolivia by Michigan University.
