NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Nashville’s Parthenon has been home to a small, brown ceramic dog for more than five decades, but how it got there is something that has long troubled staff members.

The sculpture resembling the Xoloitzcuintli dog breed is just one piece of the collection, consisting of more than 240 different Pre-Columbian artifacts that were likely illegally taken from Western Mexico and donated to the Parthenon in the 1960s and 1970s.

“When I first started two years ago, that was just my first thought when I saw the collection, that they have to go home. I didn’t have any other opinion on it really. It was just an immediate gut feeling. These should go back to Mexico,” said Registrar and Assistant Curator Bonnie Seymour.

Like many of the artifacts in the collection, the sculpture may have been buried with the dead to protect them as they went into the afterlife. The Xoloitzcuintli is one of the most ancient dog breeds in the Americas and is seen as a sacred animal or a spirit guide in Mexican culture.

“This stuff represents their ancestors,” Seymour said of the artifacts. “These are the people that came before them, and they represent the spirit and the soul; and their history; and their culture; and everything about them.”

Parthenon Director Lauren Bufferd said staff members have known for at least the past 20 years that they shouldn’t keep these artifacts, but they “didn’t know how to legally pass [the collection] on to the next place.”

Now, in what was a nearly six month-long process of research and consultation with Metro Nashville’s Legal Department, the Pre-Columbian collection will finally be going home.

On May 7, the Metro Council approved an ordinance change that legally entitles the Parthenon and Metro Parks to remove the artifacts and return them to their country of origin.

“This ordinance says that anything that the Parthenon is getting rid of just needs to go through Metro surplus,” Bufferd said. “That’s how it is if you’re getting rid of office equipment that you don’t need anymore. But this is a different situation. So, we worked with Metro Legal, and they looked at the situation and made their suggestions.”

In a news release sent out after the ordinance was passed, Metro Councilwoman Joy Styles called the Parthenon’s efforts trail-blazing and said this change will “create a local process to re-home art should this ever happen again.”

Museums wrestle with problematic history of some collections

It’s something that many museums and universities across the world have been wrestling with as of late as they consider the large role that looting has played in obtaining art and antiquities.

Some of those institutions have also begun shifting their policies in order to return indigenous remains and artifacts. However, many questions remain about the legal and ethical issues of retaining and displaying artifacts or repatriating them to their countries of origin.

“Most people have something in their collection where the provenance is shady or incomplete or just flat out looted and everybody knows it, and then you have to deal with what is happening,” Bufferd said.

The 248 Pre-Columbian artifacts in the Parthenon’s possession came from an amateur archeologist who would go on summer vacations to Western Mexico. Even back then it was illegal to take antiquities out of Mexico, but Bufferd said the law was “ignored widely.”

In her research, Seymour said she discovered that the archeologist would essentially have “someone on the ground to find places that hadn’t been excavated,” dig those places up and bring any findings back to the United States.

It’s a similar story for many Mesoamerican artifacts at other institutions as it became very popular to collect those types of artifacts some 50 to 60 years ago.

“It even became a pop culture thing for a while,” Seymour said. “So, Mexico has a lot of missing history because a lot of pieces have been taken, and when you take it like that you lose the context of what the pieces mean and that’s a huge loss.”

In the past, Seymour said the provenance of items was sometimes overlooked by museums, not necessarily out of ill will, but because they often wanted to prevent the artifacts from falling into the “black market of art dealing.”

Where the artifacts will be heading, how to see them

Beyond the zoomorphic figures and the Xoloitzcuintli sculpture, the rest of the Pre-Columbian collection at the Parthenon includes ceramic pots, small adornments, musical instruments and even hand tools, all from the Western Mexican region.

The term “Pre-Columbian” refers to the period in the history of the Americas before Christopher Columbus’ voyage in 1492. The artifacts will be heading to the Institute of Anthropology and History Museum in Mexico City this summer.

“These things came from graves — a good amount of them. Some of them were bought on the street by vendors, which brings into question their authenticity,” Seymour said. “So thankfully the Mexican people, the Mexican museum will figure that part out.”

However, Nashvillians will still be able to get a glimpse of the artifacts before they return home thanks to an exhibit Seymour helped put together. The exhibit called Repatriation & Its Impact combines the artifacts with new works by José Véra González, a Nashville-based Mexican artist.

Seymour said her goal was to not only educate the public on the “positive impact” of repatriation, but to demonstrate the cultural significance of these artifacts.

“I wanted people to see the other side of it, that museums will go out of their way to do this because it’s the right thing to do,” she said. “I also wanted to have people see that this isn’t just a bunch of artifacts from a long-dead culture that no one knows a lot about, that these connect to actual living people, a living culture that still thrives and grows.”

Nearly 300 people attended opening day in April, and Bufferd said the concept has been well received by the public and Metro Government. The artifacts will be on display in the Parthenon until July 14.

A specific date for their return is still being discussed, but Bufferd said the Parthenon plans to have a “wonderful sendoff for them” once that day comes.

“With council approving this ordinance, we just couldn’t be happier where I still am sort of pinching myself that this is really going to happen,” she said. “Really, it’s been an overwhelmingly positive response. We’ve not run into any — there’s been no pushback and nobody’s saying, ‘No, you should keep these’.”