A ceremony took place in Port Vila, Vanuatu, this week to repatriate five crates of human relics seized by the FBI in 2016 from a deceased New York collector. The contents included two skulls molded with mud and three large effigies, known as rambaramp, each containing the skull of a man from the hill tribes of Malakula. The effigies were uniquely painted to depict the final stages of a man’s life. The return of these sacred items marked the end of an eight-year FBI investigation.
The items were probably stolen from a sacred men’s house in a bush village and trafficked due to a market for human remains. The effigies, with the largest being 11-1/2 feet long and weighing 700 pounds, are extremely fragile and presented a logistical challenge for the FBI’s art crime team.
The Vanuatu effigies were identified with the help of anthropology professor Holly Cusack-McVeigh at Indiana University and the Museum of New Zealand. The FBI’s Rapid Deployment Team designed a plan to escort the crates on a multi-leg journey from Washington to Vanuatu, where they were opened at a repatriation ceremony.
The effigies are significant to the Smol Nambas tribe, who stopped practicing rambaramp 50 years ago. They can identify a man by his effigy and believe the items should not be displayed outside Vanuatu. The repatriation of these artifacts is part of the museum’s efforts to seek the return of relics, including human remains, from around the world. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell emphasized the respect for cultural heritage and sanctity of these artifacts during the ceremony.
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