Despite the time, Lapland’s famous midnight sun was still up. During the summer months the sun doesn’t go down at all in Utsjoki, which is less than 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the Arctic Ocean.

In the glow of blue spotlights, Laiti rapped while a crowd of more than 300 listened, some of them singing along and dancing. Like the majority of Utsjoki’s residents, Laiti is a member of the Sámi — Europe's only recognized Indigenous people — and he rapped in his native Sámi language.

Laiti, also known by his stage name “Yungmiqu,” is the founder of the Loktafeasta rap festival. He first found fame on the television show Talent Finland, where he surprised the judges by rapping in the gákti, the traditional dress of the Sámi. It is brightly colored and often characterized by plaits, pewter embroidery and a high collar.

The festival brought Laiti’s Indigenous culture to the spotlight, though some of his fans could not understand what he was saying. That didn’t seem to bother anyone at the Loktafeasta as the festival mixed performances from artists in both Sámi language and Finnish.

Some drank beer and ate sausages and the crowd seemed to enjoy the summer festival atmosphere despite spells of rain.

“When I rap about my culture ... I want to show how being Sámi is like from my point of view," Laiti told The Associated Press.

“Because there are many stereotypes about Sámi people and I want to like normalize ... the basic stuff we do and not romanticize those things,” he said. He added that he has not worn the gákti for performances for about a year now to show people that it is possible to be Sámi and wear whatever you want.

Europe's only recognized indigenous people

The Sámi traditionally live in Lapland, which stretches from northern parts of Norway to Sweden and Finland to Russia. However, of the roughly 10,000 Sámi people living in Finland, the majority now live outside their homeland.

The Sámi people were oppressed for centuries by the powers that ruled and exploited their lands, including bans of the use of their native tongues and efforts to suppress their culture. In the past decades, there have been efforts to reestablish their rights, including the right to use Sámi languages which is now guaranteed in the Finnish constitution.

Today, the historically semi-nomadic Sámi people have modern lifestyles. The few who still tend reindeer do so with modern vehicles, digital tools and regulated land use.

However, there is an effort to preserve the Sámi's cultural identity. Distinctive Sámi clothing was worn by many at Loktafeasta, as is typical on special occasions.

Artists rap in Finnish and Sámi language

At the festival, Laiti mostly wanted his fans to be happy and enjoy the music.

“I want people to feel joy, of course, and I just want people to be happy that we have this kind of festival here in Utsjoki," he said with a smile.

Among the other acts was a duo comprised of self-confessed old school tango crooner Jaakko Laitinen and rapper Jouni J. They also reside in Lapland and perform in Finnish.

“I see a connection from the hip hop and the tinkering with words to the old Finnish like Kalevala freestyling folk poetry," said Laitinen, referring to Finland's national epic about the Earth's creation.

"So that obvious connection and the Finnish tango ... is part of our soul and heart,” he added.

A world away from the birthplace of rap music in the Bronx

Although the duo’s songs were a world away from the birthplace of rap music in the Bronx in New York City, their performance brought joy to Utsjoki's locals and visitors.

“Music travels and music brings people together. It’s the magic of the international language of music,” Laitinen said.

The artwork was repatriated from Germany through diplomatic channels, arranged by the Italian Consulate in Stuttgart, Germany, after having been returned from the heirs of the last owner, a deceased German citizen.

The owner had received the mosaic as a gift from a Wehrmacht captain, assigned to the military supply chain in Italy during the war.

The mosaic — dating between mid- to last century B.C. and the first century — is considered a work of “extraordinary cultural interest,” experts said.

“It is the moment when the theme of domestic love becomes an artistic subject,” said Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii and co-author of an essay dedicated to the returned work. “While the Hellenistic period, from the fourth to the first century B.C., exulted the passion of mythological and heroic figures, now we see a new theme."

The heirs of the mosaic's last owner in Germany contacted the Carabinieri unit in Rome that's dedicated to protecting cultural heritage, which was in charge of the investigation, asking for information on how to return the mosaic to the Italian state. Authorities carried out the necessary checks to establish its authenticity and provenance, and then worked to repatriate the mosaic in September 2023.

The collaboration with the Archaeological Park of Pompeii was also key, as it made it possible to trace it to near the Mount Vesuvius volcano, despite the scarcity of data on the original context of its discovery, the Carabinieri said.

The panel was then assigned to the Archaeological Park of Pompeii where, suitably catalogued, it will be protected and available for educational and research purposes.

“Today’s return is like healing an open wound,” Zuchtriegel said, adding that the mosaic allows to reconstruct the story of that period, the first century A.D., before Pompeii was destroyed by the Vesuvius eruption in A.D. 79.

The park’s director also highlighted how the return by the heirs of its owner signals an important change in “mentality,” as “the sense of possession (of stolen art) becomes a heavy burden.”

“We see that often in the many letters we receive from people who may have stolen just a stone, to bring home a piece of Pompeii,” Zuchtriegel said.

He recalled the so-called “Pompeii curse,” which according to a popular superstition hits whoever steals artifacts in Pompeii.

The world-known legend suggests that those who steal finds from the ancient city of Pompeii will experience bad luck or misfortune. That has been fueled over the years by several tourists who return stolen items, claiming they brought them bad luck and caused tragic events.

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Zampano reported from Rome.