The "caps de bou" (bulls' heads) of Costitx are a prime example of this state plundering of archaeological treasures. Well, plundering is an exaggeration, though some might consider the sale of the heads to have been so. They have been in the possession of the National Archaeological Museum of Spain since 1895, when a German archaeologist sold them to the state museum for 3,500 pesetas, an amount which seems extraordinarily low even for those times.
In order to understand why that sale figure can appear as meagre as it now does, one has to know the story of the bulls' heads. It is one that goes back to perhaps as long ago in antiquity as the fifth century BC, though its starting-point may be earlier - the second century BC: a definitive date has never been established. Whenever it was, the heads are from the Talaiotic period of Mallorca's history, a time which has as its most obvious manifestations the stones of Talaiotic settlements, one of which is the sanctuary of Son Corró in the village of Costitx. It was here that the three heads were discovered in 1894.
They are referred to as small, medium and large because of their varying sizes, and when they were found, they were in a remarkably good state of preservation. The quality of the "find", therefore, was one reason why they were valuable. Another - and perhaps the most important - was that they are the finest example of icons that worshipped the cult of the bull, which was one of the principal religious practices of the Talaiotic people. More than this, they are made of bronze, and so are evidence of the exchange the Talaiotic people must have had with other cultures: there was no and is no tin on Mallorca, and a bronze alloy would have needed it.
At the time that the sale was being effected, the Llullian Archaeological Society in Mallorca (named after Ramon Llull) attempted to buy the heads by raising money through public subscription. This was to end in failure, though, as sufficient funds could not be raised to match the price that the museum was going to pay, and so the heads went to Madrid, where they still are.
1979 was the first time when a genuine effort was launched to try and have the heads returned to Mallorca. As with subsequent ones, in 1983 and 1986, it came to nothing. In 2008, it appeared as though there was some movement. The national Minister for Culture seemed disposed to agreeing to the return. Yet again, however, the attempt was ultimately fruitless. The Council of Mallorca, meanwhile, and in its role as promoter of Mallorca's culture, had suggested that the heads should be placed on display for six months at an exhibition to mark the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Costitx having been a separate municipality in 2005. Again, the attempt was not successful.
One of the strange aspects of these constant rejections was that there were distinctly political overtones. These weren't of right versus left because both the Partido Popular and PSOE were against the bulls being returned. The reasons why were not totally clear, other than that they appeared to be founded on some form of rejection of images with a clear Mallorcan "nationalist" flavour.
In March last year, the mayor of Costitx, Antoni Salas, who is a member of the regionalist-nationalist El Pi party, called for the heads to be brought to Mallorca this summer and be displayed at the Museum of Mallorca. He seemed to be getting somewhere, even with the PP-dominated regional government and Council of Mallorca, both of which had to be onside in pressing for this temporary arrangement. But nothing has happened since, until now, and Salas is once more asking for the heads to be brought to Costitx, where they have only once ever been on show - this was in 1995, to mark the anniversary of the sale.
The refusals that have emanated from Madrid are in fact consistent with an attitude on behalf of central government and the state museum to not hand back ancient treasures not just to Mallorca and the Balearics but to all the regions of Spain. In one sense this is understandable. The museum is, after all, the museum for Spain's history, but then the bulls' heads are representative of a distinctive culture that Mallorca and the Balearics do not share with the rest of Spain; they are part of the island's own culture. Should they be on display here? Of course they should be.
Photo of the bulls' heads from Sencelles town hall - www.ajsencelles.net
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