MEXICO .- Between the decades of 1970 and 1980, Do Miller, an American fond of archeology, took from Mexico two anthropomorphic figurines of the Teotihuacan culture that conserved among the more than 42, 000 pieces from his clandestine collection that he accumulated with historical figures from China, Canada, Iraq, Peru and Mexico.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) seized them at the end of their days, when the collector had more than 90 years, and reconsidered “to return it to their rightful owners ”. Mexico demanded them.
This year they arrived in the territory to add to the goal of the current Mexican government that undertook a crusade in 2018 in search of recovering part of their culture.
According to Miguel Gleason , executive director of the Mexican Cultural Institute in New York who investigated on the subject, there are about 9, 000 pieces of pre-Hispanic art that are distributed in museums from Europe and the United States; according to Salvador Tinajero, Deputy Legal Consultant B of the Ministry of Foreign Relations (SRE), it is “impossible” to know how many.
“There are pieces that come out as part of a chain of illicit trafficking, they start with a clandestine excavation in an archaeological site, they go there and, if you look, you will find something and then they come out little by little in suitcases, they go from one country to another ”, warns the official in an interview with this newspaper.
The Mexican State has two arguments to demand the return. The first is that since 1970 the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) , through the Paris Convention, urges member states to adopt “appropriate measures” to prevent the acquisition of illegally exported goods and facilitate the recovery of those illegally stolen.
The other it is its own legislation that prohibits the export of cultural property. Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard pointed out that “the people who buy and commercialize illegally stolen pieces, in the light of Mexican law, are“ criminals ” and therefore they must return them, they are not theirs, but of the Mexican people.
Tinajero is more graphic and explains that collectors see archaeological pieces as art to put on their library shelves or as speculative material, while for Mexico it is part of a material that helps to explain the cosmogony of our ancestors and the history of the country.
For example: “There are some toys that have wheels in the Xalapa museum that explains that there was already a concept of mobility in the pre-Hispanic world or there are coins that were recently recovered and that report that there was already a legal tender exchange (beyond barter). ”
The Camino
The wife of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Beatriz Gutiérrez, made a tour of Europe at the beginning of the administration to request some archaeological pieces temporarily and expose them in Mexico for the 500 years of the taking of Tenochtitlan from the Spanish.
He met with Pope Francis and the President of Italy, Sergio Mattarella; with Brigitte Macron and many other important ones. Later, Ebrard and the Ministry of Culture, Alendra Frausto joined the battle with legal strategies and direct demands on other governments and the auction houses that they accuse of “legitimizing illegal acts.”
Since then 5 have been recovered, 746, pieces according to data from the Ministry of Culture. Among the most recent, a globular vessel of pre-Hispanic origin (300 BC – 600 AD) and two anthropomorphic figures made of ceramics belonging to the Teotihuacan culture , dated to the Mesoamerican Classic (250 – 746 AD).
They were in Italy and were rescued in a search through the e-commerce market by the caravineri with whom Mexico has made alliances. Since 2013, the collaboration with this Italian specialized command has made it possible to restore 77 archaeological pieces and 594 votive offerings.
Fatter loot recovered in the United States: 280 pieces, mainly stone carved, recognized by the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). They were stolen from the territory currently occupied by Sonora and include “rare” copper bells and anthropomorphic figures.
In Germany, ordinary citizens approached the Mexican embassy in Berlin to deliver “voluntarily” a total of 34 pieces that include clay figures, bowls, seals and vessels, and an effigy-type torso made by the cultures of the Gulf Coast of Mexico, the Central Highlands, the West and the area Maya.
In recognizing the effort in that country, Ebrard said that it is “encouraging” that the citizens of the world understand the historical value for Mexico.
The consultant Tinajero added that among Mexico’s efforts to make other countries aware of the value of these pieces, the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) is training foreign customs agents so that they know how to distinguish archaeological, authentic, apocryphal and other items.
The resistance
In recent months the Mexican government battles with a challenge: the laws of countries like France that prevent the State from getting involved in private transactions . For this reason, in recent months it was unable to stop two auctions despite the fact that Mexico asked the presidents of two houses to cancel their operations.
In one of those auctions that took place in Paris they sold 33 pieces by Christie’s house that raised three million dollars (about 61 millions of pesos); in the other, called Archeology, Eastern Art and Pre-Columbian Art, the 12 last November with a result of around 923, 820 dollars, as reported by the Parisian sales house Artcurial.
Mexico has responded that although in the Civil law derived from Roman law establishes that in the possession of good property the property is presumed (one does not go to the department store asking for an invoice for all the clothes, explains Tinajero) , there are certain rules that have changed and now There is a prohibition for cultural goods to be taken out of the country under certain circumstances.
“What we say is that the purchase certificates teach us in good faith,” adds the official.
In this controversy about the circumstances of the departure of pre-Hispanic pieces is the Plume of Moctezuma found in Austria: Mexico maintains the request for its return.
It may interest you:
· The United States returns to Mexico pre-Hispanic pieces, illegally taken from the country