avfört, relief, repatrierat, stele

The lower part of La Amelia Stela 1 (actually a fragment of a big stela(?) or of a wall panel(?), well known in maya archaeology: see e.g. Morley (1938); Proskouriakoff (1950); and Freidel et al (1993)). It was repatriated (escorted by museum director Per Kåks and the Americas-curator Staffan Brunius) to Museo Nacional de Arquelogia e Etnologia, Guatemala City, Guatemala, in 1994, after Swedish governmental decison the same year. The upper part (ca 80%) of the limestone monument, incl. Maya hieroglyphs showing a Maya Long Count date of 810 A.D., is at the said museum; the two parts were reunited. The monument had been cut in two parts by looters in the 1960s. The upper part (ca 80%) had been confiscated by Guatalmalan authorities; the lower part (ca 20%) had been brought out of Guatemala, ended up at a dealer in NYC, purchased by the art collector Ernest Erickson (originally from the island of Åland, part of Finland) who donated art objects to museums in USA, Finland, and Sweden. The lower part came to the National Art Museums, Stockholm, in a Erickson-deposition/later donation and the lower part was later deposited at the Museum of Ethnography. This repatriation case was presented by Staffan Brunius during ICOM meetings 1995 in Stavanger, Norway. See also e.g. S. Brunius, Resan till Guatemala, in the museum´s Berättelsen om ett År 1994 (1995); the museum´s exhibition catalogue Maya det gåtfulla folket (1969); note about the repatriation in the journal Mexicon. See also J. Wirgin. The Ernest Erickson Collection in Swedish museums (1989).
(SB, 2010-04-22).