A Moai from Rana Nui is (edit : no more) going to be in Paris for 2 weeks

In 2010, a moai is gonna stand in the Jardin des Tuileries (near the Louvre) for 2 weeks.

Apparently, the Rapa Nui chiefs have found out that a Moai wanted to come to Paris. The moai wants to come for metamorphosing the material world conscience into a more human conscience with the spiritual energy of the moai (travel sponsored by Louis Vuitton).

There seems to be lots of connections between Rapa Nui and France lately : Exhibitions, advertising including moais...

Sorry, no translated link : http://www.lefigaro.fr/culture/2008/12/15/03004-20081215ARTFIG00262-un-moai-a-paris-fait-rever-l-ile-de-paques-.php

[ Edited by: virani 2010-04-13 11:06 ]

now, is this really a good idea ?
Considering the travel (energy used to make the multi tons moai travelling), that the Moai really doesn't belong here, that so much Rapa Nui art were stollen by french (amongst others) during the last centuries... I don't think so. It seems to be a commercial idea to promote the island and the sponsors.

I'm happy to be able to see that Moai in a few months, but still, I'd prefer the island to get the money to protect the statues, to make a real nice museum...

I think it's okay to promote awareness. But like you say could be only for money.

I think the moving of the Magic Carpet Mini Golf Moai in Tuscon is a much more momentous occasion! :)

One could compare ancient and contemporary Moai-moving techniques, and energy expended for them.

This story is a bit odder than one might think. From the London-based Independent newspaper ........

• An unusually large tourist will visit Paris in 2010. One of the vast statues of elongated human heads and torsos from Easter Island in the Pacific has "expressed the wish" to visit the French capital to preach – silently – against Western materialism.

The statue has let it be known to the island's leaders that it wanted to make the pilgrimage, the French newspaper Le Figaro reported yesterday. Two islanders, including the governor's nephew, have made a preparatory visit and concluded that one of the statues or moais, which range up to 30ft high and 90 tons in weight, should stand in the middle of the Tuileries gardens, halfway between the Louvre and the Place de la Concorde.

"Everyone on the island knows that a moai is going to Paris," Edgard Hedreveri, the Easter Island tourism director, told Le Figaro. "It is going to find a platform in Paris to spread spiritual energy which will change the conscience of humanity. It is going to transform the materialistic conscience of the world into something more humane."

The nearly 10,000-mile journey to Paris from Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean, the world's most isolated inhabited island, will be organised by an Italian foundation. The cost of the anti-materialist pilgrimage will be covered – somewhat inappropriately – by the French luxury goods company Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (LVMH). *

LVMH is a holding company, whose brands include Moet et Chadon (Don Perignon), Divenchy, and 10 Cane rum.

More can be found here.....
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/easter-island-statue-to-make-a-pilgrimage-to-paris-1128215.html

I don't know about this...I am very superstitious about removing ancient relics, be they Moai,lava rock,etc. These Moai have been happily resting in their original place for thousands of years, and I do not believe they wish to travel. Only modern man, with his insatiable urge to disturb the natural order of the world, would move them for his own desires. Wanna see them??? Travel.

moai were believed to be carved between 1250 and 1500.

"hundreds of years" would be a conservative estimate.

WOW!!!

...there is nothing else to say.

Look at it this way. When the Moai returns home he/she will have been "cultured".
He/she will bring back fine perfume, champagne, a new "standard" lack of personal hygiene, and a rude attitude.
In return Brigitte Bardot will bring them new bunny rabbits and baskets full of eggs.

Well, I just read in Tahiti Pacifique Magazine that finally, that moai won't come to Paris this summer.
1400 pasquan had to vote to decide, and most voted no (very large majority).

We've got an extra bedroom in Kailua if the Moai decides to stop over in Hawaii.

It's good to see that the Islanders are in the camp of protecting their heritage & keeping yet more of Rapa Nui from being located in other countries where they may never get it back. Let alone damage that could easily occur to the Moai.

The people who wanted this to happen at LVMH were going to insure it for 2 million dollars while away from the island.
The Moai of Rapa Nui are priceless.
& 2 Million would seem like a mere pittance to Louis Vuitton.