In a landmark ceremony held in Lima, the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest has formally returned a collection of four rare 15th-century gilt-silver figurines to the Peruvian government. The artifacts, which depict noble figures in ceremonial dress, were identified as part of a sacred capac cocha offering and were likely removed from an Andean high-altitude sanctuary during the early 20th century.
The restitution follows a three-year provenance investigation that utilized isotopic analysis to link the silver's chemical signature to the Porco mines of southern Bolivia, a primary source for the Inca Empire. The figurines will now be housed in the National Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology, and History of Peru, where they will undergo specialized conservation to stabilize their delicate metallic surfaces.