The Museum of Fine Arts confirmed Thursday that it plans to remove eight Native American objects from its galleries in response to updated federal guidelines that regulate the repatriation of Native American ancestral remains, funerary objects, sacred articles, and items of cultural patrimony.
The museum said the objects, which include pottery vessels, musical instruments, and a textile, “may be considered sacred or ceremonial within their communities of origin.” The museum plans to remove them from view in the coming weeks, “until consultation with the relevant tribal representatives can take place.”
“The MFA plans to invite tribal representatives to provide guidance about the objects and work together with them on appropriate next steps,” the museum said in a statement to the Globe, adding that it “recognizes the cultural knowledge and expertise of tribal representatives.”
The move comes in response to updated “duty of care” guidelines in the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, or NAGPRA, which require museums to get tribal approval before displaying or doing research on relevant Native objects in their collections.
The new guidelines, which went into effect last month, have prompted museums across the country to remove applicable objects from view. Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology is currently in the process of pulling objects from its galleries, as are other major museums, including the Field Museum in Chicago and the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Perhaps most dramatically, the American Museum of Natural History in New York has closed two large halls in response to the new measures, a decision critics have said was a long time coming.
The updated guidelines have prompted some smaller museums to reassess their collections as well.
Naomi Slipp, chief curator at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, said the museum recently removed one item from display in response to the updated regulations.
She added that the museum staff, which was already in the process of reinstalling and reinterpreting some of its galleries, is also working to address how the new guidelines will change research and access to objects.
“This involves thoughtfully creating new policies around access to photographs of Native communities and collection items, and restricting public information,” Slipp said in an email to the Globe. “Our collections catalog is unwieldy, and we are preemptively going record by record in the database to remove all potentially relevant items from our public collections database until we can understand our institutional responsibilities and possible next steps.”
Meanwhile, the MFA said it is “committed to elevating Native American voices throughout our galleries and responsibly stewarding the Native American objects in our collection.”
The museum hired its first curator of Native American art in 2021; last year, it hired a full-time NAGPRA coordinator, another first at the museum.
Murray Whyte of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
Malcolm Gay can be reached at malcolm.gay@globe.com.