Why a Zuni Fetish Museum?

The recent opening of the Leekya Deyuse exhibit at the Albuquerque Museum was spectacular--beautifully displayed and accurately described, which we will take some credit for as we vetted most all of the items. This is exactly the type of exhibit we intend to present at the Zuni Fetish Museum.

But the sad part was this also shows exactly why the Zuni Fetish Museum needs to exist. An article in the Albuquerque Journal appeared the weekend before the exhibit opened promoting the show. Unfortunately the front page of the section showed two fake Leekya fetishes from a gallery in Santa Fe as if they were legitimate. I’d like to hope the gallery was just ignorant of their being copies. So while the exhibit strove so hard thanks to curator Deb Slaney to get things right, the article in part undid all this careful work. Most people were totally unaware of the items not being real Leekya pieces, and that makes matters worse because now these items could potentially be sold as real.
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The Zuni Fetish Museum will strive to always be accurate, and if we discover an error, will make sure that it is corrected. Sadly some museums in the Southwest have not seen fit to do that. Some have shown fakes in their displays for well over ten years. That’s why the Wheelwright Museum in Santa Fe is so good, because they do take the time to get it right. We promise to be that type of museum.