Mexico Claims New York Auction House Sold Stolen, Fake Pre-Hispanic Artifacts Sam Sanders - NPR.org
go to original November 13, 2014

Pedestrians pass the display windows at Bonhams New York auction house. (Bebeto Matthews/AP)

Bonhams Auction House sold more than 100 pre-Hispanic artifacts Wednesday in New York City, including several Aztec and Mayan warrior statues. The Mexican government claims that at least half of the pieces are fake, and the rest are stolen. In a Spanish-language statement translated by NPR, Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History said:

Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History condemns the auction by Bonhams in New York of pre-Columbian, Mexican artifacts. The auction took place without regard to legal and ethical norms. The sale not only violated Mexican laws but the Treaty of Cooperation Between the United States of America and the United Mexican States Providing For The Recovery and Return of Stolen Archaeological, Historical and Cultural Properties that was signed on July 17, 1970.

The institute says it made Bonhams aware of the "violation" through Mexico's Consulate General in New York. The institute says its experts went to New York to examine the artifacts, and they found that several showed evidence of modern manufacturing.

Read the rest at NPR.org

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