British Museum targeted by Chilean social media campaign over Easter Island statues

A moai figure from Easter Island at the British Museum – escapetheofficejob / Alamy Stock Photo/Alamy

The British Museum has become the target of a growing social media campaign in Chile, where nationals are stepping up calls for the return of stone monuments taken from Easter Island.

People are demanding the repatriation of a moai statue to Rapa Nui, a Chilean territory known as Easter Island, after a campaign was initiated by an influencer based in Santiago last month.

Rapa Nui, which was annexed by Chile in 1888, bears a strong Polynesian identity and is located more than 2,000 miles from the mainland.

The museum holds two of its treasured statues, which were taken from the island by British surveyors in 1868.

The stone monuments are believed to have been carved on Rapa Nui at some point between 1300 and 1600.

Requests from islanders living on Rapa Nui for the return of the two monuments have been long-running, culminating in a written request for their return in 2018.

Last month, Mike Milfort, a social media influencer in the Chilean capital with more than a million followers online, launched a campaign for the museum to return the statues.

Mr Milfort’s online campaign gained enough traction for recognition from Chilean President Gabriel Boric, who echoed the calls in a Chilean radio interview last month.

After a flood of comments hit the museum’s social media channels, officials were forced to close the comments on one Instagram post.

Comments remain closed on one post made alongside charity the Youth Project, and are limited on others.

A British Museum spokesperson said: “Comments were only deactivated on one social media post.

However, the Guardian reported that Rapa Nui mayor Pedro Edmunds Pao said the president “should not politicise something that is so holistically, spiritually and culturally important to us.”

The island houses more than 1,000 moai statues, which were crafted centuries before European colonisation.

One of the statues held by the British Museum, the Hoa Hakananai’a, is of noted significance.

The museum claims to have “good and open relations” with colleagues in Rapa Nui.

The Guardian reported that Edmunds Pao added: “We are not ruling out that the Hoa Hakananai’a could stay in London and be our great ambassador.

“But we need to firmly establish that its rightful owner is the culture of Rapa Nui.”

The Council of Elders of Rapa Nui last year wrote to King Charles III requesting the return of the moai.

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