A Paris court has rejected a bid to stop the auction of masks originating from a native American tribe in Arizona, according the tribe’s lawyer.
The Hopi tribe and its supporters say the sale would amount to sacrilege.
The Hopi say the 70 masks are blessed with divine spirits and have been stolen from them.
Auctioneers, however, say the masks had been bought and sold in the past and were legally acquired.
“The sale is going ahead,” lawyer Pierre Servan-Schreiber, who represents the tribe, told news agency AFP.
The actor, Robert Redford, has been supporting the Hopi and describes himself as a “close friend”.
Before the court ruling, he wrote that the masks “belong to the Hopi and the Hopi alone”.
“To auction these would be, in my opinion, a sacrilege – a criminal gesture that contains grave moral repercussions,” he said.
“I would hope that these sacred items can be returned to the Hopi tribe where they belong. They are not for auction.”
The legal proceedings were brought by the organisation Survival International, which defends the rights of tribal peoples.
The US ambassador to France, Charles Rivkin, has also said he is “very concerned” about the sale.
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