Finn who damaged Easter Island statue to leave

Tourist pays $17,000 fine, apologizes for chipping earlobe off ancient Moai

Police Handout / EPA file

Marko Kulji removed part of the earlobe from the moai, a monolithic human figure carved from rock, located at the Anakena beach, on the Easter Island.

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updated 5:21 a.m. ET April 9, 2008

SANTIAGO, Chile - A Finnish tourist who chipped an earlobe off an ancient Moai on Easter Island is being allowed to go home after paying a US$17,000 fine and agreeing not to return for three years, police said Tuesday.

Marko Kulju, 26, deposited the money into a bank account overseen by the court that handled his case, the Easter Island prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

At prosecutors’ request, Kulju also wrote a public apology for damaging the figure, one of 400 statues carved out of volcanic rock between 400 and 1,000 years ago to represent deceased ancestors. The statues are protected by Chilean law.

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Kulju was taken into custody after being caught by a local Rapanui woman two weeks ago trying to steal a piece of the Moai’s ear as a souvenir. The woman reported him to police on the South Pacific island.

Kulju called his attempted theft “the worst mistake of my life,” in comments published by the Santiago daily newspaper La Tercera in its online edition Tuesday.

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Chile & Easter Island air/hotel, $2,230

It was not clear exactly when he planned to leave the island, a Chilean territory.

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