Mexico’s Culture Ministry strongly denounced an online auction in the United States of artifacts it considers part of Mexico’s archaeological heritage.
Organized by the Artemis Gallery in Louisville, Colorado, and scheduled for this Thursday, the auction seeks to sell off pieces of pre-Columbian origin and ethnographic significance.
Following an analysis conducted by the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), at least 47 objects on offer are part of the national cultural heritage, protected by the Federal Law on Archaeological, Artistic, and Historical Monuments and Zones. According to this law, they are inalienable assets and property of the nation.
“The pre-Columbian and ethnographic pieces that are intended for sale are vestiges of our ancestral cultures and national history; they constitute a living memory of the Indigenous peoples of Mexico,” Culture Minister Claudia Curiel de Icaza said, describing the planned auction as “an attack on the country’s memory and cultural identity.”
Curiel reported that Mexico has initiated legal action for the U.S. auction house to halt the sale, citing respect for the ethical and cultural values represented by these pieces.
Furthermore, the government is seeking to repatriate the objects to Mexico and combat the illicit trafficking of cultural property in compliance with national legislation and international treaties.
Under the banner #MiPatrimonioNoSeVende (My Heritage Is Not For Sale), the Culture Ministry reiterated its policy of actively defending Mexico’s archaeological, artistic and historical heritage, denouncing that the commercialization of these assets is cultural dispossession that undermines the memory of Indigenous communities.
This case is the latest of recurring attempts by foreign countries to auction Mexican archaeological pieces. In March 2024, the same art gallery auctioned archaeological assets associated with the Maya and Teotihuacán cultures. The items included zoomorphic figurines, vessels made of modeled clay, mirrors inlaid with green stone and fragments of sculptures.
In April, the Culture Ministry denounced the auction “Auction 104. African, Asian, Oceanic and Pre-Columbian art,” organized by auction house Zemanek Münster, in Germany, which sold 17 Mexican archaeological artifacts.
With reports from Infobae and La Jornada