Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History returns Indigenous Peruvian remains to Consulate General of Peru

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History has coordinated the return of the remains of two ancestral Indigenous Peruvians to the Consulate General of Peru in Los Angeles.

The remains were excavated from the Ancón Necropolis in northern Lima Province, Peru in 1877 by Léon de Cessac, who donated them to Santa Barbara State College in 1878. The remains were then donated to the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History (SBMNH) in 1925.

The Peruvian Ministry of Culture concluded the remains qualified as part of Peru's National Cultural Heritage and will officially be transferred into the custody of the Republic of Peru on Jun. 6 of this year.

This transfer was made in solidarity with the Memorandum of Understanding between the United States government and the government of the Republic of Peru first signed in June of 1997 and updated in May of 2022.

“At the Museum we are committed to ensuring that Indigenous cultures and communities have the ability to regain custody of their ancestral remains and funerary objects,” said SBMNH President & CEO Luke Swetland. “We have been honored to care for these remains for many years and are grateful that we can transfer custody to the Consulate General of Peru in Los Angeles.”

For more information about the SBMNH's repatriation efforts, visit their webpage on the topic here.