27 Jun 2018

Māori skull returned to NZ from Cologne

From Morning Report, 8:25 am on 27 June 2018

A tattooed and mummified Māori skull has been returned to Te Papa by the mayor of the German city of Cologne overnight. The Cologne's Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum was holding the skull after it was purchased from a London "art" dealer in 1908 - before that it's thought that Norwegian explorer Johan Adrian Jacobsen brought it back from New Zealand. We spoke to our correspondent in Germany, Derek Scally, who says he was surprised to see so much emotion at a ceremony in Germany.