Quito (AFP)
Part of a "very important collection" of more than 500 pre-Columbian archaeological items, repatriated from Germany, was presented Thursday in Quito by the public commission against the trafficking of cultural property.
It is a total of "536 pieces that are fortunately in Ecuador" after being repatriated from Germany in the last four years, said the Minister of External Relations, José Valencia, to the press.
This collection of objects dating back thousands of years has been restored by the heirs of Josef Rettinger, a deceased German who had lived in Ecuador from 1975 to 2005.
"We assume that between these dates, the objects were taken out of the country," added Valencia. "We could not determine how or where."
In Ecuador, the international transport of archaeological goods is a crime punishable by seven to ten years in prison.
Among the recovered objects, which will be exhibited in Ecuadorian national and municipal museums, the largest of which are 45 cm high, are pieces of pre-Hispanic culture.
Statuettes, necklaces, jars, mirrors and axes, stone, ceramic and gold, are part of it.
The head of diplomacy said that Rettinger's heirs had made contact with the Ecuadorian embassy in Germany in 2015, willing to return these objects "without the need to activate legal procedures".
Culture Minister Ana Maria Armijos said it was "a very important collection".
The pieces belong to different "pre-Hispanic cultures Ecuadorian dating back to more than 3,500 BC" and are of "immense cultural value," said the Director of Cultural Heritage, Joaquin Novillo.
In 2010, Ecuador created the Commission to Combat Illegal Traffic in Heritage Goods, which has since recovered 13,617 rooms inside and outside the country.
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