A piece of Tlingit artwork has been donated to the Sealaska Heritage Institute after being sold in Paris in December 2013.

The institute had called for the carving to be removed from the auction, but the house refused.

It was eventually bought by the Anneburg Foundation (an agency that supports non-profits) and was returned to Alaska earlier this week.

The Tlingit people are native to Alaska

Rosita Worl, president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute, told the Alaska Dispatch News: "These are not just material objects".

"They are associated with our ancestors, and their return is like an ancestor is coming back home."

Paris has emerged as a centre for the sale of Native American artefacts which has led to controversy in recent years - as demonstrated during the sale of a series of Hopi masks last year.  

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