The Albuquerque Museum in New Mexico has returned to Mexico a collection of antiquities that had been donated to the museum and kept in storage for more than a decade. The collection of twelve artifacts, which includes sculptures and statues with roots in the indigenous Olmec and Zacatecas communities, was donated to the museum in 2007.
Five months ago, the museum discovered the items in storage where they had been for the past fifteen years. An anonymous donor donated the pieces to the museum after purchasing them in the 1980s from an undisclosed dealer.
After the objects were uncovered, museum researchers identified an assessment from 2007 that described the artifact as “pre-Columbian,” a descriptor given to some of the ancient objects produced in regions of Latin America before the European conquests.
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The move came as defenders of cultural institutions called for cultural artifacts with indigenous roots to be returned to their countries of origin. Mexico’s government is making efforts to stop pre-Columbian artifacts from being sold at international auction houses and has made repeated requests for their return.
The Mexican government has estimated that more than 5,000 artifacts have been recovered from Mexico in the past several years.
The museum brought in archaeologists at the University of New Mexico and Emory University in Atlanta to certify the pieces before discussing returning the pieces with the Mexican Consulate. The pieces will be transferred to the Mexican National Institute of Anthropology and History, an agency of the Mexican government that oversees the preservation of cultural pieces.
The department estimates that the artifacts were produced from an area in western Mexico between 300 and 600 BC
In a statement, Norma Ang Sanchez, the consul of Mexico, acknowledged the Albuquerque Museum for its efforts to voluntarily return the pieces, calling them “important elements of memory and identity for our indigenous communities.”
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