San Francisco Museums Prepare to Return Pestles and Mortars
Published Date: 6/17/2025
Notice
Summary
The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco plans to return two important Native American cultural items—pestles and mortars—to the tribes they belong to. This repatriation will start on or after July 17, 2025, honoring Native American traditions and history. No money changes hands, but the museum is making sure these items go back to their rightful communities.
Analyzed Economic Effects
2 provisions identified: 2 benefits, 0 costs, 0 mixed.
Two Native American artifact lots to be returned
The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco plans to repatriate two lots of cultural patrimony — one lot of pestles and one lot of mortars (FAMSF Accession 51890) — that were removed before 1924 from Folsom, California. The museum says these items have cultural affiliation with the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians (Shingle Springs Rancheria), the United Auburn Indian Community of the Auburn Rancheria of California, and the Wilton Rancheria, and the return may occur on or after July 17, 2025. The items were gifted to the museum in 1924 and part of one lot was loaned in 1964; no hazardous-substance treatment is documented for these objects.
Who can request these items and how
Any lineal descendant, Indian Tribe, or Native Hawaiian organization not named in the notice may submit a written request for repatriation by showing, by a preponderance of the evidence, that they are culturally affiliated. If competing requests are received, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco must determine the most appropriate requestor; joint requests are treated as a single request. Requests may result in repatriation on or after July 17, 2025, and should be sent to Christina Hellmich at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (address and email provided in the notice).
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