According to the information provided by the Museum, this moai kavakava was purchased in 2011 from the shop Antigüedades Obilinovic. The piece is accompanied by a paper note showing the name ‘Juan Laharoa’, who, I assume, is the author of the piece.

According to my genealogical research, Juan Laharoa was born in Rapa Nui in 1939. He was the first son of Magdalena Laharoa Hey (1922-2010). His father was a Chilean man.

Juan Laharoa arrived on mainland Chile in 1955, being part of the first Rapanui group of students who received a grant from the Chilean Ministry of Education. Laharoa married in Chile in 1975 and left descendants in Santiago. He never returned to the island and died in Santiago in 2003.

Further reading

Muñoz, Diego. 2017. Diaspora Rapanui (1871–2015). L'île de Pâques, le Chili continental et la Polynésie française: Une ethnographie historique de la mobilité dans une société transnationale. PhD dissertation, EHESS-CREDO, France.