National Geographic News, Reporting Your World Daily

Monday, November 23, 2009

Photo: French City Vows to Return Maori Head


Email to a Friend	<< Back to Full Story

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