Mexico has made a special effort to recover historical pieces scattered around the world. There are more than 5,000 repatriated works in the less than three years of the six-year term, as announced this Monday by the Secretary of Culture, Alejandra Frausto, during the commemoration of the 200 years of the independence of Mexico. Part of this recovered collection is part of the exhibition
La grandeza de México
, a journey from pre-Columbian times to the 20th century, which also includes the latest archaeological finds in the country and a handful of transfers from museums and international institutions.
From codices ceded by the Vatican to the so-called Huasteca governess, a female sculpture from the remote first millennium BC, found by the INAH at the beginning of this year in the Huastec territory of the state of Veracruz. "All of Mexico is represented here showing that the history of this country did not begin just 500 years ago," added the Secretary of Culture in line with some controversial statements a couple of years ago by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador where he already conceived as Mexicans to pre-Hispanic peoples.
During the commemoration this year of the double anniversary - the fall of Tenochtitlán and Independence - López Obrador has been more cautious with the delimitation of historical periods. During the morning conference on Monday, dedicated entirely to commemorative events, the president personally presented an honorary medal to Roberto Riccardi, commander of the Carabinieri unit for the protection of the cultural heritage of Italy, for his collaboration in the recovery of pieces historical Mexican. Later, mid-morning, during the opening of the exhibition at the National Museum of Anthropology, he again praised the performance of the Italian police and even announced the creation of a special body within the National Guard dedicated to the protection and safeguarding of the heritage.
In the sample archaeological pieces of diverse pre-Hispanic towns are exhibited.
Nayeli Cruz
In the last operation in Italy, on September 16, an auction of 17 Mexican archaeological pieces from the Mayan, Toltec, Teotihuacan, Aztec and Mixtec cultures was intervened.
Despite the fact that eight of the pieces had already been auctioned, the Government assures that all were insured and are in the process of being repatriated to the country.
Since the beginning of the six-year term, in December 2018, Mexico has repatriated 5,746 assets, mostly archaeological.
"Mexico is making international alliances so that more pieces return to our country and are known by the very cultures that created them," added Frausto.
The latest intervention occurred last week, with a formal claim by the government to an auction house in Munich, Germany, which included 74 archaeological pieces in its catalog.
Brigadier general's jacket worn by Vicente Guerrero.
Nayeli Cruz
The exhibition
La grandeza de México
, open to the public on Tuesday and with a second headquarters in the building of the Ministry of Public Education (SEP), in the historic center of the capital, has 1,525 works, of which more than 800 will be the first time that they can be seen in Mexico thanks to collaboration agreements for the transfer of works from the United States, France, Italy and Sweden.
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