Word: stuttgen
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...people involved in the apparent attempt to export the two skulls has yet been charged. "I don't know why it's taken so long," says Wewak police detective Kila Tali, who took part in the original seizure. He says the prime suspect, local artifacts trader Ralf Stuttgen, has admitted some involvement in packing the boxes containing the heads and delivering them to the courier's office. A police raid on Stuttgen's home later uncovered a third skull...
...person, 66-year-old Stuttgen, a former Berliner, looks more like the Catholic missionary he aspired to be when he arrived in the country in the 1960s. But the interior of his wooden cottage, perched on the rainforest-covered heights above Wewak, confirms his fascination with tribal objects. Eerie hook-nosed masks and giant carvings cover the walls. Twenty years a dealer, Stuttgen defends the sale of skulls, saying, "It is a victimless crime. I was just trying to help the (local) people. They brought them here. I just helped them mail them," he says. The skulls were not genuine...
...Stuttgen says the skulls were being sold to foreign buyers for about 600 kina ($150) each. He also says he suspects local authorities are hoping he will offer a bribe to make the case go away, but he refuses to identify his supplier or give details about the intended recipients of the grisly cargo. The boxes the skulls were packed in, however, provide better clues. They are clearly addressed to individuals in Germany. One recipient is a natural-therapies practitioner who declined to speak to Time about the skulls but says he does know Stuttgen. Efforts to contact the other...
...intricately carved poles that support the roof of a village's haus tambaran. These poles, made from a special hardwood, represent the most powerful spirit in a village and can fetch as much as $100,000 at international auctions, says Eoe. Haraha says he is seeking to question Stuttgen about some spirit-house poles that were put up for sale recently in Wewak...
...Sometimes, however, it's the collectors who are the ones conned. The skilled carvers of the Sepik are also master forgers - and skulls feature prominently in their repertoire. Anthropologist Garnier examined images of the seized skulls for Time, and believes they are, as Stuttgen claims, modern imitations. Should they prove to be genuine, he says they could be worth more than $12,000 in Europe, especially in the Netherlands, which has become a clearing house for such items. Even if they are not ancient items, however, the bones have to be sourced from somewhere. Eoe says the villagers may have...
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