スイス、２５００年前の石彫をペルーに返還

【ジュネーブＡＦＰ＝時事】スイス連邦文化局は８日、約２５００年前のペルーの石彫を返還したと発表した。（写真は、スイスからペルーに返還された、頭部を模した約２５００年前の石彫。スイス連邦文化局提供）
　石彫は２０１６年、ドイツの美術商の依頼でトラックでスイスに持ち込まれた。頭部を模しており、重さ約２００キロ。一枚岩でできている。
　文化局によると、文化財として適切に申告されてなかったため調べたところ、ペルーから違法に持ち出された「疑い」があることが分かり没収された。
　石彫は７年前に持ち込まれた独バイルアムラインの税関で、スイス文化局長からペルー大使に渡された。
　同局の発表によると、鑑定の結果、「現在のペルーに栄えたチャビン文化（紀元前１２００～同５５０年ごろ）時代のもの」だと分かった。こうした先コロンブス期の文化財は、ペルーで最も危機に直面しているという。
　スイスとペルーは共に、１９７０年に国連教育科学文化機関（ＵＮＥＳＣＯ、ユネスコ）が採択した文化財の不法輸出入を禁止する条約を締結した。２０１６年には文化財の不法輸出入問題での協力を強化する二国間協定に署名している。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2023/02/10-17:42）

The Swiss on Wednesday handed a large stone-carved head back to Peru, where it was sculpted around 2,500 years ago by one of the country's earliest civilisations, the culture office said.
The monolithic sculpture, which weighs almost 200 kilogrammes (440 pounds), was brought into Switzerland by truck in 2016 from Germany at the request of a German art dealer.
Switzerland's Federal Office of Culture (FOC) said in a statement that the sculpture had not been properly declared as a cultural property. It was later confiscated as there was substantiated suspicion it had been illegally taken from Peru.
FOC head Carine Bachmann presented the decorative stone sculpture to Peruvian ambassador Luis Alberto Castro Joo at the Basel-Weil am Rhein customs office, where the piece was discovered seven years ago.
After it was discovered, FOC specialists reviewed the piece and determined that the 2,500-year-old stone head from the pre-Hispanic Chavin culture (circa 1200 to 550 BC) originates in what is now Peru, Wednesday's statement said.
That makes it a significant piece of cultural property that should have been declared as such when it was imported.
Peru is heavily affected by the plundering and destruction of archaeological sites.
And pre-Columbian pieces like the stone head returned Wednesday are among Peru's most endangered categories of cultural property, the FOC said.
Switzerland and Peru are both signatories of a 1970 UNESCO convention banning the illegal import and export of cultural property.
The two countries also signed a bilateral deal in 2016 to strengthen their cooperation on the issue.
This restitution underlines the shared commitment of Switzerland and Peru to combating the illegal transfer of cultural property, the FOC said.