Cultural Restitution
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Updated January 2025
Below is a schedule of successful restitutions made by Mexico to a country or community of source, together with other restitution news.
Entries are updated regularly
January 2025
Through collaborative efforts, Mexico's diplomatic representations have secured the repatriation of 399 cultural artefacts from France and North America
January 2025
An indigenous Mexican nation, the Nahnu people of Hidalgo, has written to France's National Assembly seeking the return of a centuries-old codex
September 2024
Mexico's culture minister reported the country recovered 14,048 objects of Mexico's cultural heritage during President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's six-year term in office
March 2023
Mexican authorities claim 83 artefacts scheduled for sale in Paris on 3 April are protected under Mexico's cultural heritage laws and must be withdrawn from sale
November 2022
Mexico's office of the Association for the Reparation of Colonialism calls for the definitive return of objects looted during the Colonial period in Mexico and other countries
September 2022
At MONDIACULT 2022, one hundred and fifty states adopt an ambitious Declaration for Culture at a UNESCO conference in Mexico City affirming culture is a "global public good"
March 2022
While 'Moctezuma's headdress' may be too fragile to move, Mexico warns Austria they seek the return of other cultural artefacts removed during the colonial period
February 2022
Mexico is ramping up its efforts to repatriate its lost Pre-Columbian heritage and to halt auction sales of these objects altogether
October 2021
Mexico's heritage is 'not for sale' insists Mexico's Culture Minister
October 2021
Mexico's embassy in Paris asks two auction houses planning sales of Aztec, Mixteca, Colima and Olmec antiquities to cancel sales planned for November
September 2021
Mexico's President announces the country is to form special crime unit to locate and repatriate looted artworks and antiquities
September 2021
The Mexican government has recovered from the USA historic manuscripts, including documents stolen from the national archives during a period of "wholesale pillaging"
April 2021
The Mexican government returns a stolen Ile-Ife statue to Nigeria
March 2020
'Looted' Nigerian bronze Yoruba sculpture, returned to Nigeria after being seized at Mexico City airport, is a fake of the 'worst quality'
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