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Chancellery coordinates meeting between Director of Kon Tiki Museum of Norway and Governor of Rapa Nui to advance in delivery of pieces

Thursday, November 1, 2018

On November 13, the Director of the Kon Tiki Museum of Norway, Martin Biehl, will meet with the Provincial Governor of Easter Island, Tarita Alarcón Rapu. The meeting, which has been coordinated by the Embassy of Chile in Norway and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will serve to advance in the delivery of various elements of the collection on Rapa Nui that this institution has.

The collection, which is quite extensive, includes archaeological and ethnographic pieces, carved artifacts, genetic material, as well as a large series of photographs taken in the 1950s.

Precisely this week, within the framework of the Conference Our Ocean, held in Bali, Indonesia, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Roberto Ampuero, addressed this issue with his Norwegian counterpart, Ine Eriksen Soreide. In the opportunity, the Chancellor valued "the disposition of the Kon Tiki Museum to deliver to the community of Rapa Nui the cultural objects that are currently in their possession, as well as to the Norwegian government for supporting and accompanying this decision".

At the beginning of October, the Norwegian museum authorities informed the Chilean Ambassador to Norway, Waldemar Coutts, of the intention to deliver the pieces, within the framework of the 104th anniversary of the birth of Thor Heyerdahl, Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer, whose explorations and discoveries, including his expeditions to Rapa Nui, are exhibited by the Kon Tiki Museum.

The Director of the Museum, Martín Biehl, expressly asked Ambassador Coutts to be the intermediary with Chile in the process of restitution of the collection. "It is a great success. Now the challenge lies in where to place those pieces on the island," explained the Ambassador.