Despite Legal Challenges, Sale of Hopi Religious Artifacts Continues in France

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Ton Mashberg

A view of three Hopi masks from Arizona during a Paris auction in December 2013. 

FRANCE---Prompted by another large sale on Friday of American Indian religious items — the fourth such auction in the past 18 months — embassy officials invited an American judge, who is herself a member of the Hopi tribe, to explain to government officials, art dealers, academics and lawyers why treating spiritual objects as commodities is insulting and sacrilegious. The embassy’s efforts did not pay off last week despite two legal challenges to the auction, which included 29 vibrant Hopi spiritual headdresses and masklike items, known as Katsinam, that are treated as living entities by the tribe. [link]