Two Dutch citizens return 17 archaeological pieces to Mexico

A visit to the Museum of Ethnography in Leiden, West Holland, where the exhibition is on display aztecs, motivated Hubert De Boer and Liesebeth Mellis to return to Mexico 17 archaeological pieces that they had in their possession for more than three decades. The National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) has ruled that the objects made of clay are, for the most part, of Huastec origin. Their route back to the place where they were created thousands of years ago began this Sunday with a restitution ceremony at the Mexican embassy in the Netherlands.

Dutch citizens commented that the exhibition “made them measure the richness of Mexico’s cultural heritage,” according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) in a statement. The pieces were made using the modeling, smoothing, incision and pastillage application technique, according to the INAH. Experts have determined that 13 of them are in the Huastec style and were made by that civilization on the Gulf Coast of Mexico during the Mesoamerican Postclassic period (900-1521 AD).

Another two were made by the Aztecs in the central Mexican highlands in the Mesoamerican Late Postclassic period (1200-1521 AD); one more is of Mixtec style made in Oaxaca during the Mesoamerican Postclassic period (900-1521 AD), and another was forged on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico during the Mesoamerican Classic period (400-750 AD). Now, the objects will be repatriated by the Mexican Embassy in the Netherlands and will remain under the protection of INAH, adds the SRE.

Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard celebrated the recovery of the archaeological heritage and congratulated the Mexican ambassador to the Netherlands, José Antonio Zabalgoitia, for the restitution. For his part, Zabalgoitia thanked Boer and Mellis for their initiative to return the pieces and reaffirmed the country’s commitment to recover the cultural property that belongs to it. “It is a State policy that is replicated in several Mexican embassies and consulates and that requires coordination between each representation, the SRE and the INAH,” he has indicated.

The return of the pieces adds to the repatriation of more than 5,800 cultural assets in the last three years, which the Secretary of Culture, Alejandra Fraustro, reported at the end of 2021. Last June, German citizens voluntarily handed over to the Mexican Embassy in Berlin a total of 34 objects, and in September, the Italian authorities suspended the auction of 17 lots demanded by the Mexican Government.

However, in Mexico’s struggle to recover part of its heritage from auctions and private collections around the world, the losing battles have been more frequent. At the beginning of November, the firm Christie’s raised more than 3.5 million dollars in an auction of pre-Hispanic objects, despite the claim of several countries not to carry it out. Shortly before, the French firm Artcurial did not stop the auction Archéology, arts d’Orient & pre-Columbian artdespite Mexico’s claim on the patrimonial property of 40 pieces.

Last September, the German firm Gerhard Hirsch auctioned off 74 objects that the Mexican authorities were asking for their return. And last February, Christie’s closed an auction with profits of more than 3.5 million dollars, despite attempts by Mexican authorities to stop the sale of 30 pre-Hispanic art objects that it also claimed as part of its history.

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