National Art Gallery exhibits 460 repatriated pre-Hispanic pieces

Published at: 16/09/2024 03:02 PM

The National Museums Foundation and the Cultural Heritage Institute (IPC) inaugurated the exhibition Testimonies of Ancestral Memory, Illicit Traffic and Repatriation, consisting of 460 expatriate pre-Hispanic pieces that remain on display for the general public at the National Art Gallery (GAN), located in Caracas.

According to information from the Ministry for Culture, the exhibition of 460 archaeological pieces recovered in a process that meant the largest seizure of local archaeological objects, aimed to show the actions carried out by the IPC for the prevention and control of illegal trafficking in cultural property, as well as the repatriations that have been achieved in collaboration with the Venezuelan Technical Committee for Combating Trafficking in Cultural Property.

In this regard, the president of the IPC, Dinorah Cruz, explained that “this exhibition has to do with the emblematic Kueka Stone, which was illegally stolen in 1998, as well as from a collection found in a house in Costa Rica on December 24, stolen in Spain by collectors”.

In turn, he reported that the extraction of cultural property from the nation must be carried out by authorized experts. In addition, he pointed out the importance of this exhibition at the GAN, because the audience can learn about the process to recover pieces such as Abuela Kueka, a sacred monument of the Pemón people.

Among the figures on display, there is also the Serpent Bowl, which dates back to the year 200 BC, and was made in a Tocuyanoid style, characterized by its upper part, where the head of a snake was modeled and applied with dots to form eyes and mouth.

Mazo News Team