Relocation of moai

Since the removal from Easter Island in 1868 of the moai now displayed at the British Museum, a total of 12 moai are known to have been removed from Easter Island and to remain overseas.[1][2] Some of the moai have been further transferred between museums and private collections, for reasons such as the moai's preservation, academic research and for public education. In 2006, one relocated moai was repatriated from the Centro Cultural Recoleta in Argentina after 80 years overseas.[3] In 2022, one moai held in the Chilean National Museum of Natural History in Santiago was returned to the island after 150 years abroad.[4]

Objects in museum collections

The following table lists the most prominent moai held in museums and collections:

Material Height Current locationCountry Acquisition Date Reference[5] Notes Image
Basalt 2.42 m The British Museum, LondonUnited Kingdom 7 November 1868 1869.10-5.1

Hoa Hakananai'a

 Taken from Easter Island (Rapa Nui) in 1868 by the crew of HMS Topaze and is now on display in the British Museum. (Full article: Hoa Hakananai'a)
Basalt 1.56 m The British Museum, LondonUnited Kingdom 7 November 1868 1869.10-6.1 Moai Hava In the British Museum's Oceanic collection
Tuff 1.85 m Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, ParisFrance 1872 Formerly presented in the Musée de l'Homme, then moved to the new Musée du Quai Branly.[6]
Lapilli tuff 2.24 m Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. United States 1886 E128368-0 (EISP# SI-WDC-001) Removed from Ahu O'Pepe.
Tuff 1.194 m Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. United States 1886 E128370-0 (EISP# SI-WDC-002) Removed from Ahu O'Pepe.
Tuff 1.70 m Pavillon des Sessions, Musée du Louvre, ParisFrance 1934-35 MH.35.61.1 Presented to the Chilean government by Henri Lavachery and Alfred Metraux for the Musée de l'Homme after their expedition to Rapa Nui, in 1934-35.
Red scoria 0.42 m Pavillon des Sessions, Musée du Louvre, or the Musee de l'Homme, ParisFrance 1934-35 MH.35.61.66
Basalt 3 m Royal Museums of Art and History, BrusselsBelgium 1934-35 ET.35.5.340 or Pou hakanononga Removed by the Lavachery, Metraux and Watelin expedition.
Trachyte 1.6 m Otago Museum, DunedinNew Zealand 1929 D29.6066 Moai and pukao were removed from Rapa Nui in 1881 by Alexander Ariʻipaea Salmon and shipped aboard the Nautilus to the Maison Brander plantation in Pape'ete, Tahiti. They were sold to Otago Museum in 1928 by Norman Brander and arrived in Dunedin on 15 April 1929.[7][1]
Tuff 2.81 m Corporacion Museo de Arqueologia e Historia Francisco Fonck, Viña del MarChile 1174 (EISP# MF-VDM-001)
Basalt Corporacion Museo de Arqueologia e Historia Francisco Fonck, Viña del MarChile 35-001 (EISP# MF-VDM-002)
Tuff 2.94 m Salón de la Polinesia, Museo arqueologico, La SerenaChile Displayed in Europe, then moved to the Salón de la Polinesia in Chile.[8][9]

Issues of authenticity

The issue of authenticity of moai heads may never be fully resolved. The fact is that the rocks used to carve the heads are as old as the volcano eruption that formed them, so carbon 14 testing reveals no evidence of authenticity. The age of the moai heads on the island cannot be determined, and off the island, heads can only be determined to be made from Easter Island volcanic rock or not made from Easter Island volcanic rock. Determining the age of an Easter Island moai head is therefore an art, and not a science. Field experts make judgments and express opinions about what tools they feel were used and attempt to tie an age to that opinion. Such a condition means that moai heads cannot be tested with hope of determining authenticity; they may, however, be brought under suspicion of being fakes. As with any object of antiquity, the patrimony, the history and story of the heads, is an important part in determining authenticity.

An unauthenticated moai head entitled "Henry" currently stands in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California. It was obtained in the first half of the 20th century by the founder of the park Dr. Hubert Eaton. Dr. Eaton allegedly received the moai in a legal transaction between Rapanui fishermen at Easter Island who were using the head (approx 1m height) as ballast for a boat.[10] The Memorial Park has no plans for authenticating or testing the moai in the near future.

In 2003, the Chilean government began an investigation into two moai heads within a set of 15 other Easter Island artefacts[11] — the possessions of Hernan Garcia de Gonzalo Vidal — which were put on sale at The Cronos gallery in Miami. After a photographic inspection by Patricia Vargas, an archaeologist at the University of Chile's Easter Island institute, she commented that ""They might be nice art pieces, but I doubt any one is 500 years old. It appears that the cuts have been made with modern machinery and not with stone tools." A meeting arranged between the Chilean newspaper El Mercurio which first reported the sale, and Hernan Garcia Gonzalo de Vidal, later failed to take place when Mr Gonzalo de Vidal became unavailable due to a "family emergency".[12]

Replicas

In 1968, a moai (possibly Moai 35-001) was taken from Rapa Nui and displayed in New York City as a publicity stunt to oppose the building of a jet refueling facility on Easter Island.[13][14][15] Around the time of the campaign and the following tour to Washington D.C. and Chicago, the moai was received by the Lippincott company of North Haven, Connecticut, which since its inception in 1966 had provided a "place for artists to create large sculptures and receive help in transportation and installation of their work".[16] In co-operation with the International Fund for Monuments Inc, Lippincott produced a copy from the original moai (before it was confiscated by the Chilean government) and claimed the rights to execute the work on 100 further replicas.

Moai replicas are displayed, among others, outside the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County; at the Auckland War Memorial Museum in New Zealand;[17] and at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.[18]

A group of seven replica moai arranged in an Ahu exist in the city of Nichinan, Miyazaki Prefecture on the Japanese island of Kyushu. The statues were built and installed in 1996 for the opening of the seaside park Sun Messe Nichinan, of which the statues are the park's centrepiece.[19]

In 2000, the Embassy of Chile in the United States presented a moai replica, with a pair of reconstructed eyes, to the American University.[20][21]

See also

Notes and references
  1. "Easter Island Statue". Otago Museum. Archived from the original on 10 November 2011. Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  2. Van Tilburg, Jo Anne (2006). Remote Possibilities: Hoa Hakananai'a and HMS Topaze on Rapa Nui. British Museum Research Papers. Vol. 158. London: British Museum Press. ISBN 978-0861591589.
  3. "Easter Island statue heads home". The Age. 18 April 2006. Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  4. "Easter Island Moai statue begins journey home, 150 years after removal to Santiago". The Guardian. 22 February 2022. Retrieved 11 March 2022.
  5. The Entries within parenthesis (EISP#) refer to strings assigned by The Easter Island Statue Project Archived 2007-09-07 at the Wayback Machine.
  6. "Déplacement exceptionnel d'une tête de Moai au musée du quai Branly" (PDF). Musée du quai Branly. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 September 2011. Retrieved 14 March 2022.
  7. Simpson, Dale F., Jr; McKenzie, Ross; Moreno Pakarati, Cristián (February 2020). "The history of a moai & a pukao from Otago Museum, Aotearoa". Moe Varua Rapa Nui. 12 (144): 6–9. Retrieved 10 March 2022.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. "Portal DIBAM". www.patrimoniocultural.gob.cl. Retrieved 2021-03-29.
  9. Rocha, Ronai (2005-01-11), Moai em La Serena, retrieved 2021-03-29
  10. James, Steven (1954). "The South Seas Lapidary Mystery". Lapidary Journal. Archived from the original on 22 February 2008. Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  11. Porteous, Clinton (7 January 2003). "Chile probes Easter Island artefacts". BBC. Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  12. Franklin, Jonathan (11 January 2003). "Mystery looms over stone heads". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  13. Glueck, Grace. New York Times, (October 22, 1968) "5-Ton Head From Easter Island is put on a Pedestal".
  14. Slonim, Jeffrey (1999). "Madison Site Specific". Madison Magazine. Archived from the original on 8 February 2008. Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  15. Holmes, Greg; Green, Samuel (15 April 2006). "The Lope". thelope.com. Archived from the original on 8 February 2012. Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  16. Smithsonian archives of American art. (September 23, 2007) List of Collections and Interviews A-Z.
  17. "Auckland Museum - Moai replica".
  18. "American Museum of Natural History - Moai cast".
  19. "Sun Messe Nichinan". Atlas Obscura. Retrieved 2021-01-11.
  20. Welcome to American University, Washington, DC USA
  21. The Moai sur Flickr : partage de photos
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