A ceremony was held in Port Vila, Vanuatu to repatriate five crates of sacred human relics that were seized by the FBI from a deceased collector in New York in 2016. Among the contents were two skulls and three large effigies called rambaramp, each containing the skull of a man uniquely painted to depict the final stages of his life. The return of these items marked the biggest repatriation of such relics, ending an eight-year FBI investigation. The effigies, the largest of them being 11-1/2 feet long and weighing 700 pounds, posed a challenge due to their fragile nature.
These artifacts were probably stolen from a sacred men’s house in a bush village of Malakula, Vanuatu, where the Smol Nambas tribe stopped practicing rambaramp 50 years ago after converting to Christianity. The tribe identifies a man by his effigy, as they did not bury their dead but placed bodies on a platform before making these statues. The effigies were used to honor the deceased in a sacred men’s house.
The FBI’s art crime team worked with anthropology experts to identify and repatriate these items to Vanuatu. The return of the artifacts was a happy moment for the people of Vanuatu, who deeply respect their cultural heritage and view these relics as part of their ancestors. The repatriation marked the museum’s largest effort in seeking the return of relics and human remains from around the world, as they are considered sacred and should not be displayed outside of their home country. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell expressed the importance of respecting cultural heritage and the sanctity of these artifacts during the repatriation event.
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