Gold mask back home

PERU is celebrating the return of an 8th century gold funeral mask following a two-decade legal battle to repatriate the smuggled artefact from Germany.

President Martin Vizcarra yesterday attended a ceremony at the presidential palace where the so-called Sican mask was shown publicly for the first time since its return to Peru.

The mask depicting a pre-Incan deity was seized in 1999 in Germany from a Turkish art dealer arrested for selling looted objects. It was handed over last week to Peru’s embassy in Berlin.