The Canary Islands Government is confident that the government formed following the elections will have «the sensitivity» to return the Guanche mummy from Herques, which forms part of the National Archaeological Museum’s collection, to Tenerife; if this does not happen, it will take the matter to court to demand its return.
The President of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, made these remarks at the opening of the final day of an international seminar being held at the Museum of Nature and Archaeology in Tenerife (MUNA), which is dedicated to archaeological heritage from other cultures currently on display in European museums.
Regarded as the best-preserved of all the Guanche mummies, the mummy at the centre of this controversy is the body of a 12th-century man recovered in 1763 from an indigenous burial site in the Herques ravine, in the south of Tenerife, and taken to Madrid 13 years later.
Herques mummy: museum keeps the remains in storage
For many years, it has formed part of the National Archaeological Museum’s collection on the indigenous cultures of the Canary Islands; in February 2025, the museum removed it from display and transferred it to a storage facility in accordance with the Ministry of Culture’s new guidelines on the public display of human remains.
Clavijo has argued that there are no technical, academic or heritage-related difficulties that would justify these Guanche remains remaining outside the Canary Islands.
Speaking to the media, he also argued that it is precisely at this symposium on ‚Heritage Diasporas‘ that a document, the Tenerife Declaration, is to be adopted, which will ’settle‘ the technical debate on its restitution.
Guanche mummy: Canary Islands prepare legal action against the state
«We are talking about an administrative issue and one of political will,» Clavijo stated. As he went on to explain, the Canary Islands Government is not only «absolutely convinced» that it is in the right, but has already submitted a formal request to the State, a preliminary step before taking the matter to court.
The president has emphasised that the campaign is not aimed at removing the archaeological remains from an exhibition, but at recovering a mummy that is currently in a warehouse and which, in his view, should be returned to the island of Tenerife, from where it originated.
He has also argued that the remains of the ancestors «are not objects» and require a greater degree of dignity and sensitivity than any other heritage asset.
Clavijo has called on the institutions to ensure that the people of the Canary Islands and researchers can study and learn about their Guanche origins right here on the island itself.
With regard to the change of central government, he has acknowledged that he does not know whether the political climate will favour the restitution, although he has expressed the hope that the government elected at the polls will have the necessary sensitivity to address this demand.
«As you can imagine, there’s no comparison between being in a warehouse and being here,» he said.
Tenerife calls for the return of the original to the MUNA
For her part, the President of the Tenerife Island Council, Rosa Dávila, has emphasised that Canarian culture has been plundered and that a significant part of its heritage, including human remains, is scattered across various parts of the world.
Dávila pointed out that the MUNA has an accurate replica of Herques‘ mummy, but it has a legitimate aspiration to recover the original, a demand that institutions in the Canary Islands have repeatedly expressed in recent years.
The president of the Cabildo is confident that the symposium on heritage diasporas currently taking place and the so-called Tenerife Declaration will mark «a turning point» in this campaign, so that the mummy may return «home, to the land where it was born» and be interpreted in its proper context.
Comments (0)
No comments on this article yet.