Swiss collector working with First Nations leaders to repatriate Indigenous artifacts – Global News
June 28, 2026
A Swiss man who has amassed thousands of Indigenous ceremonial and historical items from across North America, which he displayed in a museum outside of Zurich, Switzerland, is working with a First Nations group to repatriate items to Canada.
The only thing standing in the way is millions of dollars.
Vincent Escriba estimates his collection to be worth $13 to $17 million. In an email to Global News, translated from German, he says he wants the items sold together, hopefully to a Manitoba-based group, to either start a museum in Winnipeg or be returned to the nations they were taken from.
