Last week sculptor Ray Boudreau told a
Times Colonist that “it’s absolutely 110% my carving” and supporting his claim he provided photos of a sculpture he executed in 2017 which the
Times Colonist writer called “a strikingly similar sculpture.” Boudreau said he used a simple hammer and chisel to shape the distinctive face before the stone vanished from the beach. What happened next is the controversial bit.
After Boudreau’s comments became public, according
The Guardian , “the museum quietly deleted the blogpost and any other references to the discovery.” This “apparently” sly act sparked a fierce debate over the museum’s methods of identifying the initial findings. Now, their entire approach to such discoveries is being brought into question.
Artist Ray Boudreau says he is 100% positive that an object, left, which recently washed up on a Canadian beach, is a sandstone carving he was working on in 2017 that disappeared overnight Photos: Royal BC Museum, Grant Keddie and Ray Boudreau
A Canadian artist says that a totemic stone pillar discovered on the beach in Victoria, British Columbia, which archaeologists of the Royal British Columbia Museum thought was a ritual Lekwungen object, is actually a work-in-progress of his made just a few years ago, which went missing and might have been swept into the ocean.
Last week, the museum announced that research based on consultations with Indigenous leaders and writings by the anthropologist Franz Boas confirmed their hunch that the 100kg sandstone pillar was a significant artefact of the Lekwungen culture. The object was discovered last summer by a local resident at Beacon Hill Park, who tipped off Grant Keddie, the museum’s curator of archeology.
Grant Keddie/Royal BC Museum
The Royal BC Museum has confirmed that a 100-kilogram carved stone pillar found on a Victoria beach last summer is an Indigenous artifact.
In a release, archaeology curator Grant Keddie said the museum would work with the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations to determine the most suitable home for the discovery.
“It’s an exciting find and a clear reminder of the long history of our people living in this region,” said Chief Ron Sam of the Songhees Nation. “We are looking forward to learning much more about the stone.”
Keddie said the stone was brought to his attention on July 12, when a local resident sent him photos of it lying on the beach below Beacon Hill Park.