Mexico’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday that Mexico has recovered 43 pre-Columbian artifacts that Italy voluntarily returned.
The Mexican government said the artifacts arrived in Mexico City on Monday on a Mexican Airlines flight from Rome.
The Carabinieri police stated that the Italian police found these pieces, which belong to different groups from the pre-Columbian period, most of which date back to the third to seventh centuries AD, after a number of investigations.
The pieces were handed over to Mexico’s Culture Minister Alejandra Frausto in Rome on Friday.
“Today, the friendship between Mexico and Italy culminates in an extraordinary act of generosity, 43 pieces of Mexican history begin to return to their origin, 43 pieces of ancient cultures that are the core of our country’s greatness,” said Frausto.
Particularly for the past four years, she added, Mexico has been talking about auctioning off artifacts belonging to Mexican cultures.
“This movement gained great momentum in Mexico and was strongly promoted by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador,” Frausto said.
This, she explained, awakened the awareness of collectors, private companies, and citizens from around the world, including Italy and Germany, who voluntarily returned pre-Hispanic pieces to Mexico. The minister said that up to this moment, about 11,500 artifacts and historical items have been recovered, and many auctions have been cancelled.
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