Mexico recovers 3,333 archaeological pieces abroad in 2022

We have been instructed, by President López Obrador, to place the recovery of our historical and cultural heritage as a priority in foreign policy, this means helping through our embassies and consulates.

Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon, Secretary of Foreign Relations.

This year the secretariats of Foreign Relations and Culture, of the federal government, managed to recover 3,333 pieces of pre-Hispanic manufacture that will be reintegrated into the nation’s patrimonial heritage, thanks to voluntary returns from foreign citizens or institutions, achieved through the management of representations of Mexico abroad.

The largest batch, of 2,522 objects, was repatriated through the Mexican Consulate in Barcelona, ​​and the cherry is a 1,500-year-old Olmec mask, recovered by efforts of the consulate in New York.

On December 2, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) headed by Marcelo Ebrard, delivered to the federal Ministry of Culture, through the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), 223 archaeological pieces recovered by the Embassy of Mexico in Netherlands

The opinion made by INAH specialists confirmed that these are pre-Hispanic pieces belonging to different Mesoamerican cultures dating from the Mesoamerican Preclassic period (1200 BC-400 BC) to the Postclassic period (800 AD-1521 AD).

In September, the same chancery returned a batch of 50 pre-Hispanic pieces to the INAH. The opinions confirmed that these are pieces belonging to different cultures from different periods of the pre-Hispanic era, which were voluntarily returned to the Mexican embassies in Austria, Canada and Sweden, as well as to the Mexican consulates in Vancouver, Canada. , and Albuquerque, United States, by citizens residing in those locations.

Among the goods, returned voluntarily by their owners, an urn of Zapotec origin from the years 600 and 900 AD stands out. C. and an architectural fragment taken from the Xtampak Mayan site.

In August, a new batch of 428 archaeological pieces belonging to desert cultures was recovered, including projectile points, flint knives, shell and bone artifacts, marine fossils and organic elements, which were seized by the Customs and Border Protection Office. of the United States and delivered to the Consulate of Mexico in Portland, Oregon.

In July, the Ministry of Foreign Relations announced the recovery of 2,522 objects or fragments of an archaeological or historical nature through the Mexican consulate in Barcelona. The largest batch recovered in recent decades by voluntary return.

“It is a very extensive collection of whorls, pre-Hispanic seals, lithic material, obsidian, flint, some stone figures, a series of molcajetes and metates, and of course also an interesting amount of bone objects, many of them of which are sgraffito and mostly human bones. They were constituted as tools or ritual objects in the context of the cultures that inhabited the Basin of Mexico”, detailed the INAH.

Also in July, the Italian authorities returned 30 archaeological pieces from the Totonac, Michoacan, Coyotlatelco, Zapotec, Mixtec and Maya cultures, which were seized by the Carabinieri and authenticated by officials from the Museum of Civilizations in Rome and the INAH.

In June, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard headed the reception in Los Angeles of 79 pieces donated voluntarily, which belonged to the Mayan, Zapotec, and Teotihuacan cultures, as well as the Shaft Tombs tradition and those settled in the Central Highlands, the West, and the Gulf of Mexico.

The cherry was the recovery of a 3,500-year-old Olmec mask found in August. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the recovery of the Olmec piece in perfect condition, through an anonymous donor who placed it in the hands of the Mexican Consulate in New York.

The #MiPatrimonioNoSeVende campaign has managed to get these repatriated objects to American and European auction houses.

francisco.deanda@eleconomista.mx