Thursday 28 October 2010

Woman arrested while attempting to mail a mummy by parcel post

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According to a report ('Woman arrested while attempting to mail a mummy by parcel post') Bolivian police arrested a woman who had tried to send a Peruvian mummy in a cardboard box to France using regular postal service. The child's corpse, probably from a burial of the Inca culture,
was discovered during a routine inspection at the time it was being shipped through the Post Office of Bolivia in La Paz bound for the French town of Compiegne addressed to a person identified as Annette Huc, said Tuesday police Col. Adolfo Cárdenas, according to El Comercio de Lima (in Spanish).
Cardenas said the detainee stated that she received the parcel containing the mummy from a Peruvian national in the Bolivian town of Desaguadero, near the border with Peru, about 70 kilometres west of La Paz. The instructions she received were to send the shipment to France by Parcel Post. She also stated being unaware of the content of the package, reports lostiempos.com of Cochabamba, Bolivia (in Spanish).

There are two points here, it is no problem at all to shove whatever illicit antiquity in a box with bubble wrap and send it through the post with some vague customs declaration hoping the package will not be opened. It probably happens all the time. Secondly what kind of perverted "ancient art" collector collects dessicated human corpses ? It seems some people have absolutely no scruples about what they will collect and put on display in their homes to "make an impression" (or whatever they use these artefacts for - I would like to see Annette Huc whoever justify this on the grounds that they are "studying the past" through gaping ghoulishly at this cadaver). The case is still being investigated. Let us hope those responsible for trafficking human remains at both ends of the chain are brought to justice.

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