National Geographic News, Reporting Your World Daily

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Photo: French City Vows to Return Maori Head


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The French city of Rouen vowed to return to New Zealand a mummified and tattooed head of a Maori man—pictured in this illustration—despite opposition from France's culture minister and a court ruling that the city lacks jurisdiction over the artifact it has housed since 1895.

France's culture minister, Christine Albanel, said the issue should have gone before a scientific committee "to verify that there is no unjustified damage to [France's] national heritage."

Photograph by AFP/Getty Images