Denmark agrees to return iron meteorite to Greenland

The Agpalilik iron meteorite, a several-ton object that fell in northwest Greenland about 10,000 years ago, is set to return to the place where it landed. Denmark and Greenland have reached political agreement on the move after decades in Copenhagen.

The decision followed a meeting between Greenland’s education and culture minister, Nivi Olsen, and Denmark’s education and digitalisation minister, Christina Egelund. Greenland’s government announced the agreement in a press release.

Agpalilik means “the rock where the sea kings live” and forms part of the Cape York meteorite. A Danish Greenland researcher discovered it in 1963, and Denmark brought it to Copenhagen two years later. It has since stood outside the Natural History Museum of Denmark.

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It belongs to the Greenlandic people, and it has great cultural significance.

The return issue was written into Denmark’s new governing platform. Greenlandic politician Aki-Matilda Høegh-Dam had demanded the meteorite’s return in May, saying, “It belongs to the Greenlandic people, and it has great cultural significance.” She also said, “It cannot be right that we have to go to Denmark and visit a museum to see it. It must come home, and it cannot happen quickly enough.”

Høegh-Dam said representatives from northern Greenland first drew her attention to the meteorite in 2024. They wanted it brought back because it had once formed part of a ritual marking the transition from childhood to adulthood. Greenland’s parliament backed its return in June.

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It cannot be right that we have to go to Denmark and visit a museum to see it. It must come home, and it cannot happen quickly enough.