21 Nov 2018

Talks on moai return to continue in Rapa Nui

1:54 pm on 21 November 2018

Officials from the British Museum will visit Rapa Nui, or Easter Island, to continue talks on a proposed repatriation of a 1,000-year-old statue.

Tarita Alarcon Rapu, Governor of Easter Island gives a press conference outside the British Museum in London after requesting the return of Hoa Hakananai'a, an ancestor figure 'moai' from the museum on November 20, 2018.

Tarita Alarcon Rapu, Governor of Easter Island gives a press conference outside the British Museum in London after requesting the return of Hoa Hakananai'a, an ancestor figure 'moai' from the museum on November 20, 2018. Photo: AFP / Adrian Dennis

The agreement came out of a London visit by members of the Rapa Nui and Chile governments, which in August requested the return of the moai, Hoa Hakananai'a.

Chile's national assets minister Felipe Ward said the next meeting between the groups would likely be in Rapa Nui, according to the Guardian.

In front of reporters at the museum on Tuesday, Rapa Nui Governor Tarita Alarcón Rapu made a tearful plea.

"I appreciate you go to the island to visit us, it's a really, really far away place and we don't have the chance to come by often.

"You have taken, keeping him for 150 years. Just give us some months and we can have that."

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Photo: World News Daily