Geneva, 4 March 2013
According to Swiss newspaper Le Temps, Peru is determined to recover archaeological items from the Swiss collection of Barbier-Mueller, expected on sale at Sotheby’s in March 2013 in Paris.
In September 2012, the auction house had indeed announced an exceptional auction of the famous Barbier-Mueller Collection, specialised in pre-Hispanic art. On 22 and 23 March in Paris, about 300 works from Mexico, Central America and South America are to be dispersed. About 60 of them are from Peru.
It appeared then that these archaeological objects had come into the hands of Josef Mueller from the 1920s in a rather undocumented fashion, and Peruvian authorities claim they lack sufficient information on how the pieces had left the Peruvian territory at that time.
“We suppose they were exported clandestinely, because since 2 April 1822 Peruvian law forbids the exportation of archaeological goods without the government’s authorisation,” reported the newspaper, from statements expressed in an official press release.