Africa-Press – Angola. The criminal case against the director of the Dundo Regional Museum, Ilunga André, accused of the crime of qualified theft, was closed this Monday due to insufficient evidence.
According to an order from the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) at the Chitato District Court, in the province of Lunda Norte, criminal proceedings against the other two Museum employees, accused of the same crime, were also closed.
The MP also orders the return of the seized media to the museum and the cessation of the impediments and restrictions that had been applied to the accused.
According to the MP, after evaluating the files, it was found that the evidence, “already weak from the beginning, became even more fragile and the evidence collected during the investigation clearly demonstrated that the criminal act did not exist”. It was “an apparent crime”.
In April this year, the piece “Mwana Pwo”, a symbol of feminine beauty in Cokwe culture and one of the most valuable in the collection of the Dundo Regional Museum, in Lunda Norte, was stolen, which forced the preventive detention of the institution’s director , by the Criminal Investigation Service (SIC).
The piece disappeared after the death of an employee of that institution, who was responsible for the keys to the safe where the mask and diamonds destined for a special exhibition were stored.
After a thorough investigation, the SIC recovered the Mwana Pwo masks, the Samanhonga (Thinker) statuette, precious jewelry, four lots containing 1,879 diamond stones, which were stolen from the Museum.
According to the MP’s order, “The suspicion that the safe was broken into to steal the supposed diamonds falls to the ground, as the defendants broke into the safe because the employee who had the keys and codes passed away in March and there was a fear of them falling out in strange hands”, the order reads.
The order adds that the decision to break in was taken at a meeting of the institution’s Board of Directors, on the eve of International Museum Day, whose celebrations required the preparation of an exhibition with the diamonds and valuable pieces found in the safe.
The document states that the supposed diamond stones were examined by experts from SODIAM and the Special Strategic Mineral Security Corps, and it was concluded that they were fake, that is, simple replicas.
The Dundo Museum has nine thousand ethnographic pieces and soon plans to collect others that are in the possession of people linked to art and holders of collections.
Among the cultural items on display, the Samanhonga (Thinker) statuette – which has become a national symbol – stands out, the Mwana Phowo masks (portrays feminine beauty), Mukishi wa Mwanangana (king’s clown) – which corresponds to the sacred sacrifice and represents the ancestors of the tribal chief – as well as the musical instruments: Ngoma (batuque or drum) and puita.
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