The skulls were probably stolen from a sacred men’s house in a bush village. They were seized by the FBI in 2016 from the estate of a deceased New York collector who had amassed 200 sacred items from indigenous cultures around the world.
“New York is the art capital of the world, and because of that, is the art crime capital of the world,” said Chris McKeogh, an agent in the FBI’s art crimes team, who traveled to Vanuatu for Thursday’s event.
“We don’t know who looted them or took them out of the country, but there is a market in the world for human remains, they are trafficked unfortunately and they are collected,” he said in an interview.
