Grete Mostny

Grete Mostny (17 September 1914 – 15 December 1991) was a Jewish Austrian who became a leading Chilean anthropologist. She was born in Austria but had to leave because of the rise of the Nazis. She went to Belgium to complete her studies before leaving for Chile. At the end of the war she was invited back to Austria but she preferred to become a naturalised Chilean. She led a number of archaeological investigations and the Chilean National Museum of Natural History.

Life Mostny was born in Linz in 1914. She enrolled at Vienna University but she had to leave in 1937 because of the rise of the Nazis. She had already completed her dissertation on the clothes of ancient Egypt and part of her exams but she had to complete her doctorate in Brussels in Belgium in 1939. She had already taken part in archaeological investigations at both Luxor and Cairo in Egypt. She left with her brother, Kurt, and her mother for Chile.

At the end of the war she was invited back to Austria but she preferred to become a naturalised Chilean in 1946.

Mostny died from cancer in Santiago in 1991.

Legacy

The University of Vienna records her biography as she was an expelled student and a victim of National Socialism. The prize is for a dissertation in the Historical and Cultural Studies faculty and it has been awarded since 2013. Mostny's dissertation is stored in ceramic form in a salt mine in Hallstatt.

Selected works Culturas precolombinas de Chile, 1954 Peine, un pueblo atacameño, 1954 Los museos de Chile , 1975 Prehistoria de Chile , 1971 Arte rupestre chileno, 1983