The National Museum of Finland in Helsinki will return 2,200 artefacts to the Indigenous Sámi people thanks to an agreement with the Sámi Museum and Nature Centre Siida, in Inari, northern Lapland. The Sámi Museum and Nature Centre Siida will present the objects in a newly built extension.
The museum has compiled an inventory of the collection, amassed between 1830 and 1998. To make room for the artefacts, which include the oldest Sámi objects found in Finland, Siida had to build an extension that is now ready to welcome back the region’s treasures.
An exhibition named “Mäccmõš, maccâm, máhccan—Homecoming,” featuring 150 objects alongside archival materials, photographs, and contemporary works will be held in October. The show is being developed by Sámi activist Petra Laiti and the artist Outi Pieski is choosing audio-visual pieces for the presentation.
The return of these artifacts to the Sámi people is not the only restitution initiative to make headlines in recent weeks. The Manhattan District Attorney’s office announced that it will return 33 objects valued at $1.8 million to Afghanistan following an investigation of the New York dealer Subhash Kapoor, and the Art Institute of Chicago recently assisted in the return of a looted linga sculpture from the 6th-century to Nepal.