Denmark and Greenland have agreed that the 20-ton iron meteorite Agpalilik will be sent back to Greenland after six decades in Copenhagen.
The agreement was reached at a meeting on Monday between Greenland’s education and culture minister, Nivi Olsen, and Denmark’s education and digitalization minister, Christina Egelund of the Moderates. DR reports that there is now political agreement on returning the meteorite.
The Greenlandic government, Naalakkersuisut, announced the outcome in a press release. According to DR, the handover process has begun, but no date has been set for the transfer.
Agpalilik has stood for years in the forecourt of the Natural History Museum of Denmark in central Copenhagen. It is part of the Cape York meteorite and struck northwestern Greenland around 10,000 years ago.
The name means the rock where the little auks live. The fragment was found in 1963 by the Danish Greenland researcher Vagn Fabritius Buchwald and brought to Denmark two years later, per DR. Politiken, which reported the same agreement, states that the transport took place in 1967.
Years of debate over ownership
Ownership and cultural heritage questions have surrounded the meteorite for several years. In May, Greenlandic politician Aki-Matilda Høegh-Dam of Naleraq, the second largest party in Greenland’s parliament, publicly demanded that the stone be brought home.
Høegh-Dam, a former member of the Folketing, said the meteorite belongs to the Greenlandic people and carries major cultural significance. She said she first learned about it in 2024, after being contacted by representatives from towns and settlements in northern Greenland.
According to Høegh-Dam, the meteorite was once used in a ritual marking the passage from child to adult in Greenland. The Natural History Museum of Denmark said in May that it would not respond to individual requests made by citizens.
One month later, Greenland’s parliament, Inatsisartut, backed the demand for the return of the iron meteorite. Egelund described that step as clearing the way for the stone to come home.
The minister called it a fair and reasonable wish that Greenlanders be able to see the meteorite in their own country. She said Denmark will work hard to complete what she described as Agpalilik’s last long journey.
Why the decision came now
DR reports that the decision follows the inclusion of the return of Greenlandic objects directly in the new government basis. sn.dk, citing Ritzau, repeated that the issue was written into the new Greenlandic government basis.
Berlingske reported on September 7 that the transfer process has started while the final timing remains unclear. Politiken reported that Nivi Olsen referred to Greenland as Agpalilik’s home.
