The preserved heads and the leg bone are currently kept at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum and have been in the Council’s safekeeping for almost 100 years.

The Council is simply a trustee of the artefacts – legally, human remains cannot be owned - therefore possession can only be in a trustee capacity.

Councillors on the Cultural and Leisure Services Committee were asked to approve the return of the remains following a request from the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

The request was made in March this year and their return has already been approved by the Council’s newly established Repatriation of Artefacts Working Group.

Councillor John Lynch, head of the working group and Convener of the Council’s Cultural and Leisure Services Committee explained: “The Council’s view has always been that each repatriation request should be considered on its own merits.

“The case put forward by the Te Papa Museum, combined with the information held by Glasgow Museums, was such that the Repatriation Working Group unanimously agreed that the return of the remains to their native culture was the right and proper thing to do.”