December 16th, 2014 Last Updated on: December 16th, 2014
Francois Mori/Associated Press – “We are not for sale”
According to the Navajo Times, a delegation, led by Vice President Rex Lee Jim, was sent to Paris to secure all seven masks that went on sale at the Paris auction house.
“This was a very delicate mission,” Jim told foreign reporters after the auction, according a press release from the Navajo Nation Washington Office. “We are happy to be taking these Navajo sacred masks home to be cleansed by our Navajo medicine people, who will determine when these masks will be used for our wintertime ceremonies.”
Francois Mori/Associated Press – Navajo Nation Vice president, Rex Lee Jim
According to a report from The Associated Press, the U.S. Embassy in Paris asked Drouot to suspend the sale to allow Navajo and Hopi representatives to determine if they were stolen from the tribes. But Drouot refused, arguing that the auction was in accordance with the law — and that a French tribunal had previously ruled that a similar sale was legal.
So happy that these masks are back where they belong!
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