The information was advanced by the Angolan news agency, Angop, which cites the spokesman for the Criminal Investigation Service (SIC) of Lunda Norte, noting that the Mwana Pwo mask and the Samanhonga figurine (Pensador).
According to Graciano Lumanhi, four batches containing 1,879,000 diamond stones were also recovered, with the recovered means being returned as a faithful depositary to the museum, while the criminal process takes place.
"The artifacts and diamonds were removed from the exhibition area, precisely in the cultural animation room and were hidden in the director's office, who was preparing for a trip to the Republic of Cape Verde", adds Angop.
The museum's director, Ilunga André, and two employees, allegedly involved in the crime, are under arrest.
The Mwana Pwo mask is one of a set of eight artifacts that were illegally exported to Europe in the 1990s, but were meanwhile recovered by the Sindika Dokolo Foundation, which returned them to the Dundo Regional Museum in 2019.
The Dundo museum, the oldest in Angola, founded in 1936 by the then Companhia de Diamantes de Angola (Diamang), houses an important collection of ethnological pieces from the Lunda-Tchokwe culture, including the collection of the ethnographer José Redinha, who was the first museum conservator.
According to Angop, the museum currently has 9,000 items, among which stand out the statuette of Samanhonga (Pensador) which has become a national symbol, the Mwana Pwo masks (depicting female beauty), Mukishi wa Mwanangana (king's clown) - which corresponds to the sacred sacrifice and represents the tribal chief's ancestors -, as well as the ngoma (drum or drum) and puita musical instruments.
