Brooklyn Museum Returns 1,305 Pre-Hispanic Artifacts to Costa Rica. Over 12 years, the collection was cataloged and photographed and 2,281 pieces were approved for deaccession based upon the established criteria,” Nancy Rosoff, the Brooklyn Museum’s senior curator of arts from the Americas, tells Artnet News’ Taylor Dafoe. “… We initiated conversations with the National Museum of Costa Rica to see if they wanted the collection and they accepted the objects as an unrestricted gift.” Highlights of the newly returned trove include a medium-sized tombstone, a large vase painted with beeswax, household utensils, sculptures, and metates (or grinding stones) from Guanacaste. According to Artnet News, some of the items date back more than 2,000 years and are associated with now-vanished cultures. “The recovery of these archaeological pieces means recovering fragments of our past that crossed our borders when we still did not have legislation to prevent it,” says Sylvie Durán, the Costa Rican minister of culture and youth, in the statement.
