The New Zealand government Thursday welcomed 20 mummified Maori heads (toi moko) formerly held in French institutions to return to their home country.
"This is a wonderful day for the people of New Zealand and for those Maori whose ancestors' remains have been returned home," Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Christopher Finlayson said in a statement.
"Toi moko have a great deal of cultural and spiritual value to New Zealand and especially to Maori."
The French parliament voted in May 2010 to allow the repatriation of toi moko, acknowledging the cultural and spiritual importance to New Zealand, and in particular to the Maori people, of bringing toi moko home to their ancestral lands, said the statement.
The first toi moko to be repatriated from France arrived last May.
Since 2003, New Zealand authorities had followed a policy of facilitating the repatriation of toi moko and Maori ancestral remains (koiwi tangata Maori) from museums around the world.
Toi moko and koiwi tangata formed part of some museum collections of Pacific artefacts dating from the 19th Century, it said.
The toi moko would be held in Wellington at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, which negotiated the return of the toi moko and kiwi tangata Maori from overseas institutions on behalf of the New Zealand government.
Toi moko and koiwi tangata were repatriated to Te Papa on an interim basis, and Te Papa worked closely with Maori tribes to determine their attributed place of origin, for eventual burial where possible on ancestral lands.
Radio New Zealand reported Tuesday that several hundred mummified heads had been returned after years of campaigning by Maori elders and New Zealand authorities, but many more remained in European museums.
The toi moko were formally handed over to Te Papa staff at the Musee du Quai Branly in Paris on Monday.
French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand said at the ceremony the handover closed "a terrible chapter of colonial history," according to the report.
The museum itself had held seven preserved heads believed to have been collected during French expeditions in the 1820s and traded by Maori in exchange for muskets and gun powder, it said.