Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum

The Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum is a museum of ethnography in Cologne, Germany. It was reopened in 2010. The museum arose from a collection of over 3500 items belonging to ethnographer Wilhelm Joest. After his death in 1897, the collection was left to his sister Adele Rautenstrauch.[1]

Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum
Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum
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LocationCologne, Germany
Coordinates50°56′05″N 6°57′02″E / 50.934639°N 6.950531°E / 50.934639; 6.950531
TypeEthnographic museum
Websitemuseenkoeln.de/rautenstrauch-joest-museum

In 2018, the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum returned a tattooed Maori skull, which had been in its collection for 110 years, to a delegation representing the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington; the skull was purchased in 1908 by the first director of the Rautenstrauch Joest Museum, Willy Foy, from a London dealer.[2]

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