20235602(en)/6 - The Looting of Pica: Agencies and Networks of Pre-Columbian Artefact Collecting from an Oasis in the Atacama Desert
THE LOOTING OF PICA: AGENCIES AND NETWORKS OF PRE-COLUMBIAN ARTEFACT COLLECTING FROM AN OASIS IN THE ATACAMA DESERT
EL SAQUEO DE PICA: AGENCIAS Y REDES DEL COLECCIONISMO DE OBJETOS PRECOLOMBINOS DESDE UN OASIS DEL DESIERTO DE ATACAMA
Benjamín Ballester
The unknown story of the excavation of a series of pre-Columbian tombs in the oasis of Pica, in northern Chile, is the main thread of this paper to discuss the massive archaeological looting in this valley of the Atacama Desert. The person responsible was the Governor of Tarapacá at the time, Recaredo Amengual, who, in 1921, donated the collection to the American Museum of Natural History in New York, USA, by means of several international commercial and shipping firms. Although the collection and its objects have been in this museum for more than a century, they have been completely ignored until now. By examining the archives associated with the collection, we can reveal the complexity of this story, which ultimately serves as an example to unveil other cases similar to that of Pica where collections are deposited in other museums and institutions around the world, and which is today the best material manifestation of Atacama’s spoliation and diaspora.
