PARIS (AP) — A Paris auction house went ahead Friday with a contested sale of dozens of Native American tribal masks after winning a court ruling, despite appeals for a delay by the Hopi tribe, its supporters and the U.S. government.
The Hopi tribe wants the masks returned, insisting they have a special status and are more than art — representing their dead ancestors' spirits.
The court also alluded to the 1978 U.S. legislation, the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, and wrote "no provisions banning the sale outside the United States of objects used in religious ceremonies or susceptible to be is applicable in France."
The Hopis' lawyers filed a request with the Council of Sales, the French auction market authority, to suspend the sale, Servan-Schreiber said, but a spokeswoman for the Council of Sales told The Associated Press that it had no legal grounds to intervene.
On Thursday, he sent a letter to the French government and the auction house asking for a delay to allow better consideration of the tribe's concerns.
Greece wants them back but opponents fear that would open the floodgates, forcing Western museums to send home thousands of artifacts.
The Hopi tribe wants the masks returned, insisting they have a special status and are more than art — representing their dead ancestors' spirits.
The court also alluded to the 1978 U.S. legislation, the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, and wrote "no provisions banning the sale outside the United States of objects used in religious ceremonies or susceptible to be is applicable in France."
The Hopis' lawyers filed a request with the Council of Sales, the French auction market authority, to suspend the sale, Servan-Schreiber said, but a spokeswoman for the Council of Sales told The Associated Press that it had no legal grounds to intervene.
On Thursday, he sent a letter to the French government and the auction house asking for a delay to allow better consideration of the tribe's concerns.
Greece wants them back but opponents fear that would open the floodgates, forcing Western museums to send home thousands of artifacts.
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