by Keith Hautala
(Jan. 7, 2014) — The Denver Museum of Nature and Science will repatriate 30 memorial statues to Kenya, thanks in part to the work of Monica L. Udvardy, a University of Kentucky associate professor of anthropology in the College of Arts and Sciences.
A New York Times story from Jan. 3 cites Udvardy as an expert on Kenyan culture. She has studied and tracked the wooden statues, called vigango, for more than three decades. Udvardy says the vigango are consecrated artifacts believed by Kenyans to be endowed with divine powers, and that they should never have been removed.
Udvardy first consulted with the museum in 2008. The full article may be read online at here.