Earlier this year, Leigh Kuwanwisiwma, director of the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office, said "To see the art market driving this kind of behavior, it's not just distressful to the Hopi people, it's a hurt that I don't believe people can really understand."
The auction wasn't the first such sale and probably won't be the last. The Hopi Tribe with the help of a Survival International attorney have tried to stop the last two Paris auctions. But so far they haven"t been successful.
For one, France doesn't have laws protecting ceremonial items like the U.S. But also worldwide — the U.S. included — there is a difference in understanding of what counts as sacred.
