15th-Century Inca Mummy Finally Returned to Bolivia

William A. Lovis, the MSU professor who took charge of the repatriation efforts, said, “It’s possible that the girl was an important person and that the objects placed with her had as much sacred importance as they had a useful purpose. Another possibility is that her death was an Inca sacrifice to appease or an offer to Inca deities.”

Describing the rationale behind the sudden return of the mummy to Bolivia, Lovia said, “I came to the conclusion that, if nobody was going to be doing any work with either the artifacts or the human remains and if we were not going to display the human remains, it would be better served to return them to Bolivia.”

The move comes as museums around the world are increasingly under pressure to return looted or donated artifacts to their home countries. As we can see, some repatriations go much more smoothly than others.