# France has returned three colonial-era skulls to Madagascar, including one believed to be a Malagasy king beheaded by French troops during a 19th century massacre. The skull presumed to be that of King Toera and two others from the Sakalava ethnic group were handed over at a ceremony at the French culture ministry. French troops beheaded King Toera in 1897, and his skull was taken to France as a trophy, later placed in Paris’s national history museum alongside hundreds of other remains from the Indian Ocean island.
France returns colonial-era skulls, including King Toera, to Madagascar