The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Germany returns collection of pre-Columbian antiques to Mexico and Guatemala

2021-11-08T05:19:44.590Z


HERITAGE - Handed over in 2020 to the authorities of Saxony-Anhalt, these 13 objects from the Mayan world and Teotihuacan would have been looted at least twenty years ago.


They languished for nearly fifteen years under a Saxon farm.

Germany on Friday handed over to Mexico and Guatemala a collection of thirteen Mayan antiquities discovered last year by the police, in the basement of a property located in the town of Klötze (Saxony-Anhalt), between Berlin and Hanover.

Guatemalan Ambassador Jorge Lemcke Arevalo as well as his Mexican counterpart Francisco Quiroga greeted, Friday in the German capital, an

“exemplary”

restitutio

n

.

Read alsoMasterpiece of Mayan statuary, the feathered stele of Piedras Negras returned to Guatemala

"These properties have great symbolic and cultural importance for the identity and history of our countries

," said the representative of Mexico in Germany on the occasion of the ceremony organized in the Berlin premises of the representation of the Saxony region. Anhalt.

The cultural heritage of a country is not for sale. ”

A message also supported by the Ambassador of Guatemala:

"This gives us hope that other owners of similar pieces in private collections can also follow this path."

The various items returned to Guatemala and Mexico on Friday were reportedly acquired at a market in Leipzig.

JOHN MACDOUGALL / AFP

"The illegal trade in cultural goods must be avoided and combated"

, confirmed for his part Reiner Haselhoff, the Minister-President of Saxony-Anhalt, for whom this restitution must also serve to sensitize the population.

"Objects stolen by looters from tombs or from former settlements are not only in museums, but can also be found in our cellars or attics,"

he said, referring to the African collections kept in German museums and claimed by several sub-Saharan countries. In the wake of the controversial inauguration of the Humboldt Forum in Berlin, and the opening to the public of its collections inherited from the colonial era, the German governmentwas committed last May to return part of its bronzes from Benin to Nigeria.

To read also Emmanuel Macron assures that the restitutions of African heritage will not be the "deed of the prince"

The spoils of a plunder

Also looted, but on a whole different continent, the various objects returned Friday in Mexico and Guatemala have been authenticated in recent months and dated to the classical Mayan period, between AD 250 and 850.

J.-C .. The collection is made up of statuettes, dishes, several fragments of heads as well as a sculpted drinking cup.

Two objects come from the ancient metropolis of Teotihuacan, the largest city in pre-Columbian America today located about forty kilometers from Mexico City.

The other eleven objects were produced in present-day Guatemala, in the heart of the Mayan world.

Read alsoCosta Rica recovers 1,305 pre-Columbian pieces from the United States

The former owner of this small collection of pre-Columbian objects was buried in a cellar in 2007, inside a crate where two rifles dating from the Second World War also rested.

Memories of his grandfather, according to the owner who contacted the authorities on his own initiative in 2020, saying he wanted to come into line with justice and return these weapons, the possession of which is illegal.

Preserved in newspaper, the old remains were bought by the owner in 2003, at a flea market in Leipzig.

According to the state of Saxony-Anhalt, they were probably stolen by looters in Guatemala and Mexico before being sold on the black market.

The trade in looted cultural goods would represent the third flow of illicit trade in the world, after the arms and drugs sector, frequently warns Unesco.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2021-11-08

You may like

News/Politics 2024-02-29T05:53:57.302Z
News/Politics 2024-03-24T18:36:00.502Z

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-27T16:45:54.081Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.