First Nations seek help repatriating 10,000 artifacts from Switzerland
Indigenous advocates are calling on federal governments to intervene and purchase a private collector's cache—estimated $20 million—before items go to auction.
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A group of First Nations leaders and advocates is urging federal and tribal governments in Canada and the United States to help repatriate thousands of Indigenous artifacts held in a private Swiss museum—a collection at risk of being dispersed on the auction block.
The items, housed near Zurich at a museum that closed in late 2025, include sacred pipes, intricately beaded regalia, cradleboards, and firearms believed connected to the era of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. A delegation travelled to Switzerland a year ago to view the collection before the museum closed.
The private collector amassed roughly 10,000 items over several decades, with 70 percent being Indigenous artifacts. Based on the collector's documentation, many are believed to originate from First Nations in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Ontario, as well as from Lakota nations in the United States. It remains unclear how the items were obtained or their cost.
The group estimates the collection is worth $20 million and needs to raise funds not only to purchase the artifacts but also to hire experts to authenticate them. Coleen Rajotte, a Cree advocate, expressed urgency: "One of our biggest fears is that if we don't raise the money and bring all of these items back, the collector could put these on private auction sites and they could end up in Dubai or in New York or elsewhere in some billionaire's office under glass as a showpiece."
Gerald Neufeld, a non-Indigenous retired engineer who grew up on a Manitoba First Nation and was part of the delegation, said the seller appears sympathetic to repatriation but is hoping to finalize the arrangement in months rather than years—or the items will go to market.
Recent years have seen momentum toward repatriation. The Vatican returned several items to Indigenous groups earlier this year, and Canadian museums and universities have begun working with communities to return sacred items to traditional caretakers. The group is now calling on governments to act before this window closes.
