A collection of 585 Brazilian Indigenous objects that had been irregularly in France for 15 years has finally returned to the country, and Clé Chenue do Brasil was the company responsible for the repatriation operation. The arrival of the collection on 10 July, at Guarulhos Airport, was announced by the president of Funai, Joenia Wapichana, as a great victory.
A five-year loan that lasted fifteen
And no wonder: the objects were loaned in 2004 to the Natural History Museum of Lille, for a period of five years. When the period ended, the institution requested an extension, but the process was never concluded. In 2015, the Brazilian Government initiated the formal request for the pieces to be returned, a process led by the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF), with support from Itamaraty, the Museu Nacional dos Povos Indígenas and Funai.
What the collection holds
The set includes headdresses, earrings, armbands, rattles and masks produced in the 20th century by 39 Indigenous peoples from Acre, Amapá, Amazonas, Maranhão, Mato Grosso, Pará, Rondônia, Tocantins and Roraima. One of the highlights is the Cara-Grande mask, of the Tapirapé people, from Mato Grosso, which can measure up to 1.6 metres in width and 1.3 metres in length.
Photo: Museu do Índio
Inspection, anoxia and packing in Paris
The transport of the pieces to Brazil was preceded by a technical inspection of the entire collection in Lille before packing and transport by truck to a specialised warehouse in Paris. There, the whole collection underwent anoxia treatment, a process that involves placing the pieces in containers from which all the oxygen is removed, in order to eliminate biological agents (such as fungi or moths) that may have settled in them.
The entire repatriation operation on French soil was carried out by Chenue, the centuries-old French company that is an international leader in fine art logistics and a shareholder in Clé Chenue do Brasil.
Arrival in Brazil
After that, the pieces were packed once again for the flight to Brazil. They now await the conclusion of customs procedures at Guarulhos Airport and will then be transported to the Museu dos Povos Indígenas, in Rio de Janeiro.
Specialising in the transport of works of art and museum collections throughout Brazil, Clé Chenue do Brasil also works on import, export, expatriation and repatriation processes for objects, as in this case, relying on an international network of equally specialised logistics partners. Learn more about the company.
