Artefacts

The Pacific Beat reported that a total of 42,000 individual items from all over the world — including human remains — were found in the home of a private collector five years ago.

The home belonged to a 91-year-old man called Don Miller, who has since died.

He had been a Christian missionary and had collected some the items from around the world over his lifetime.

"We seized those artefacts that we felt were problematic, that were outright illegal or had been obtained improperly," Special Agent Tim Carpenter from the FBI's special Arts Theft team.

Caretaker Manager of the National Museum, Alois Kuaso, and Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare, welcomed the announcement.

The artefacts were removed from the House in December 2013 by the former Speaker Theo Zurenouc, who said his actions were aimed at cleansing the building of evil spirits.

However, after the National Court ruled in favour of the National Museum, Speaker Job Pomat announced that his office was working with the latter to have the artefacts back on display in Parliament.