Italy Sends Stolen Mexican Artifacts Back Home—Cultural Justice Served
Great museums around the world are full of looted treasures from other countries during times of conquest and war.
Recently, people have started to question the legitimacy of these places holding onto culturally significant relics of different civilizations. Italy stepped up and returned more than 100 archeological treasures to Mexico, and their significance is major.
Italy returned 101 stolen artifacts to their rightful home in Mexico
During a special ceremony at the Mexican consulate in Rome, officials from both the Mexican and Italian governments announced the authenticity of the artifacts and their return. Mexican Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs, María Teresa Mercado Pérez, led the ceremony.
According to testing and authentication by officials at the National Institute of Anthropology and History of Mexico, the artifacts are legitimate and cover multiple eras of Mexican history.
The artifacts cover the Teotihuacan, Zapotec, Mesoamerican Classic, Middle Mesoamerican Preclassic, and Aztec cultures. The collection includes anamorphic and zoomorphic sculptures and renderings of cultural significance to Mexico. One item is a vase depicting Tlaloc, the rain god of the Tlolec-Maya culture.
Authorities found some of the artifacts during a raid of the home of a well-known antiquities trafficker
According to reports, 33 artifacts were found in the home of a well-known antiquities trafficker in Italy. Authorities seized this latest collection of stolen artifacts in various places throughout Italy, including those found in baggage in Consenza at the Reggio Calabria airport.
Italian and Mexican officials cooperated to authenticate, safeguard, and return the artifacts.
“Most of them are anthropomorphic figures, which shows the enormous value that our ancestors gave to the human body, although there are also decorative elements and objects of daily use,” the General Director of INAH, Diego Prieto Hernández, said at the ceremony. They come from various regions of Mesoamerica, and their temporalities cover a horizon that starts in the year 900 before our era and reaches up to the moments closest to the Spanish occupation of the current Mexican territory in the 16th century,” he explained.
Mexico has been reclaiming stolen artifacts for years, bringing home tens of thousands of artifacts in recent years
Last year, Italy returned 43 artifacts from pre-Hispanic Mexico in another ceremony highlighting Mexico’s earnest campaign to reclaim its cultural heritage from around the world. The pieces, dating back to the 3rd to 7th centuries, are now part of the more than 10,000 culturally significant artifacts repatriated to Mexico.
In November 2024, Italy also sent home 56 stolen Chinese artifacts, which added to the more than 700 artifacts that have been repatriated to China. Some of the Chinese artifacts date back to 206 BC.
Additionally, the United States has returned artifacts stolen from Italy over the years, totaling millions of US dollars. In recent years, the international effort to return stolen and looted antiquities has grown, with countries collaborating to ensure the return of culturally significant and historic items.
