Tomás Bartoletti

Tomás Bartoletti is a senior lecturer at the Chair for History of the Modern World of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich.

The long journey of the Ekeko

Tomás Bartoletti 20.05.2025 In 1858, Swiss naturalist and diplomat Johann Jakob von Tschudi illegitimately appropriated a Pucara-style figure from the sacred place of Tiwanaku. Some 150 years later, the sculpture was returned to Bolivia, a significant event that reflects Switzerland's approach to its colonial legacy.

The Ekeko figurine during its restitution to Bolivia in 2014.