Chilean authorities handed over 117 rare fossils of Moroccan origin dating back approximately 400 million years to Morocco on Monday during a ceremony held at the National Library of Chile in Santiago, several local news outlets reported.
Chilean customs had confiscated the paleontological artifacts between 2017 and 2022 upon their entry into the country.
Morocco’s Ambassador to Chile in Santiago, Kenza El Ghali, received the fossils from the director of the Chilean National Heritage Service, Nelida Pozo Kudo, and the deputy director of Chilean customs, José Luis Castro Montecinos.
Pozo Kudo said that cooperation between Morocco and Chile includes the protection of scientifically valuable fossils, noting that the “Chilean customs’ seizure of these Moroccan-origin fossils and their return to the Kingdom is a clear example of both countries’ commitment to combating illicit access to cultural property in accordance with international law.”
Irwin Brevis, the technical secretary of the Chilean National Monuments Council, said he was pleased that Chile had been able to contribute to the recovery of Morocco’s 400-million-year-old cultural heritage. “Without exaggeration,” he said, the fossils’ “long history predates the formation of continents and predates even the creation of Chile and Morocco, and thus existing before the planet exists as we know it today.”
Brevis added that “coordination and joint work between different institutions and international cooperation yield results, allowing the return of these fossil pieces to the Kingdom of Morocco.”
Ambassador El Ghali thanked the Chilean authorities for their close cooperation over the past five years in returning this Moroccan heritage.
“Smuggling of antiquities and fossils dating back millions of years may be worse than drug trafficking,” she asserted. Noting that “these fossils have finally returned to their homeland, Morocco,” El Ghali called for severe sanctions against individuals who participate in illegal practices.