Last week, the Mexican Ministry of Culture made an appeal for European galleries not to sell off precious Mexican artifacts. In its announcement, the ministry said it had identified more than 100 objects that were set to be sold in auctions in the following weeks at various auction houses, including Setdart in Barcelona, Carlo Bonte in Bruges, and Ader in Paris, as well as at the Vienna-based Galerie Zacke in Vienna. “From the Government of Mexico, we strongly regret and condemn this sale, whose pieces constitute the property of the Nation, inalienable and imprescriptible, extracted without authorization and illegally from the national territory, as their export is prohibited by Mexican legislation since 1827,” the statement read. For the most part, the ministry’s efforts failed. However, the piece held at Galerie Zacke will be repatriated, according to reporting from the German press agency dpa.Interestingly, it is noted that the object in question was set to be sold in Chinese art sale but the gallery "in a gesture of compassion and corporate responsibility” had been able to arrange for the collector, who is from the United States, to repatriate the object. The estimate for the piece was €8000, so one wonders how those negotiations looked.
Mexico has been increasingly active in pursuing repatriation. Officials in the country have launched a movement known as #MiPatrimonioNoSeVende (#MyHeritageIsNotForSale), which is aimed at discouraging people from buying and selling Mexican artifacts by explaining how important they are for Indigenous and national pride. Mexican politicians have not always been successful in getting the world’s biggest auctions to pull artifacts from their sales, but their efforts have had some effect. Last month, a Dutch couple in possession of 17 Pre-Columbian artifacts returned their collection to Mexico after learning about the harms of collecting precious antiquities.I would draw attention to the excessive erosion on this piece. A bit odd really, what kind of deposition environment was it in to get to look like that? Worth also looking at pp 185-9 ('Yugos and Hachos and Palmas, Oh my") of Kelker and Burns' "Faking Ancient Mesoamerica"....Just saying, it looks odd from that photo.
Note that these more than 100 objects were being sold in a number of European auction houses: Setdart in Barcelona, Carlo Bonte in Bruges, Ader in Paris, as well as in the Vienna gallery. It would be interesting to look into why this is. If one were to look at the global distribution of collectors of middle- and high-end Pre-columbian antiquities, where are they? My guess is not centred on Barcelona, Bruges, Paris and Vienna. So are they shipped to Europe to be sold there to avoid a scrutiny that would be higher if they were being openly offered in the US?
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