By: Jace Hill

Two masks made by the indigenous Kogi people have been found in Germany who, after centuries, gave it back to Columbia. According to the article, this is a restitution of Europe’s colonial development. These Sun Masks are from around the mid-15th century. They were given to Gustavo Petro when he made a visit to the presidential palace in Berlin. Many contracts were signed for this arrangement of the masks to come back to Columbia.

Konrad Theodor Preuss, who was the curator of the forerunner of today’s Ethnological Museum in Berlin found the masks in 1915 during a research trip to Columbia where he found 700 other unique items. The German capitol museum authority claimed they did not know that it was that old, or that it was not supposed to be sold.

The reason that the Germans gave the masks back was that they were sacred to the Kogi. “We know that the masks are sacred to the Kogi,” says German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. “May these masks have a good journey back to where they are needed, and where they are still a bridge between people and nature today.”