Legendary moai statues seriously damaged by fire on Easter Island

The fire on Easter Island has caused irreversible damage to the famous moai statues in the Rapa Nui National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is reported by The Art Newspaper Russia.

The national park, with almost a thousand ancient idols made from compressed volcanic ash, is currently closed to the public to allow restorers to assess the damage.

At the moment, it is not known how many statues were affected by the fire that began on October 4 and raged for almost a day.

According to the publication, the mayor of the island, Pedro Edmunds Paoa, speaking on the local radio station Radio Pauta, said that the fire started near the Rano Raraku volcano and was probably the result of arson.

“The fire caused irreversible damage to the sculptures,” he said as quoted by The Art Newspaper Russia.

For his part, Ariki Tepano, head of the Mau Enua indigenous community that runs the Rapa Nui National Park, also called the damage irreparable and warned that its “consequences will be much longer and more serious than it might seem,” the newspaper writes. . “This is confirmed by the Deputy Minister of Cultural Heritage of Chile, Carolina Perez Dattari,” the article says.

The famous stone heads on Easter Island were created by the original Rapanui people between 1250 and 1500.

The height of the statues reaches 4-10 m. They are placed around the perimeter of the island and turned to land, while each group looks at the territory of their tribe, writes The Art Newspaper Russia.

“Almost all Moavis have a head that forms a significant part of the statue; modern archaeologists believe that for the Rapanui they were “living faces” (aringa ora) of deified ancestors, the embodiment of their spirits,” the publication notes.