Through a social media hashtag, the Mexican government has recovered over 9,000 pieces of cultural heritage since 2018. Now, they face a new challenge: French auction houses.
When an article in the news pops up about stolen works of art, our minds immediately imagine the classic “a group of people in black ski-masks doing ballet tricks over moving lasers and dramatically slipping out of the museum before the iron gate slams shut” scene. When the article mentions “stolen cultural property,” on the other hand, we glue our eyes to the screen, hoping to see updates about the Parthenon Marbles and crossing our fingers that the British PM has come to his senses and allowed for those magnificent marble sculptures to be returned to Athens.
But stolen cultural property does not just affect the pristine marble statues of the Greek and Roman Empires. In fact, according to INTERPOL, “854,742 cultural property objects were seized globally in 2020,” ranging from coins to works of art to archaeological artifacts to library materials. While much of public activity was limited in 2020 by the COVID-19 pandemic, INTERPOL noted that there wasn’t a rise in thefts from public collections, but in illicit excavations all over the world—they report a 3,812% and 187% increase since 2019 in Asia/the South Pacific and the Americas, respectively. In terms of the enormous percent increase in South Asia, let us remember that it was only recently that the Government of Cambodia recovered their crown jewels from the collection of British antiquities trafficking kingpin, Douglas Latchford.
There is definitely a trend among the cultural heritage stolen and its country of origin: looters generally target countries that are ravaged by instability and armed conflicts and whose governments, at the time, do not consider the protection of their cultural heritage a priority in comparison to social and political unrest. There is also a “lucrative black market in cultural property with strong links to organized crime,” INTERPOL reports. This systematic looting of cultural heritage has even recently been identified by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) as financing sources for terrorist groups.
With new upwards trends in the prevalence of organized crime and theft of cultural property come new tools. INTERPOL launched the ID-Art Mobile App in May 2021 that “helps to identify stolen cultural property, reduce illicit trafficking, and increase the chances of recovering stolen items.” These apps and mobilized units from international organizations are revolutionary and brilliant ways to incorporate and introduce the general public to the world of stolen art and culture. But what about initiatives aimed at recovering stolen cultural property that originate from the robbed countries themselves?
In 2018, the Mexican Ministry of Culture launched the #MiPatrimonioNoSeVende (My Heritage is Not For Sale) Campaign, inviting Mexican citizens to “join the dissemination campaign against the auction of archaeological pieces.” Under this campaign, the Mexican government successfully recovered about 9,000 artifacts, including 2,522 objects from Barcelona, Spain, 223 objects from the Netherlands, 34 objects from Germany, and over 50 objects from Austria, Canada, Sweden, and the United States. Furthermore, they recovered 12 Olmec and other Indigenous sculptures from New Mexico's Albuquerque Museum Foundation when staff came upon the sculptures in cardboard boxes and researched their origins. As Alyssa Perez, a writer for the International and Comparative Law Review of UMiami writes, “these numbers greatly surpass the results previously seen by the Mexican government….President López Obrador’s #MiPatrimonioNoSeVende campaign has dwarfed the results of the previous administration of Enrique Peña Nieto, which brought back only 1,300 works between 2012 and 2018.”
While this campaign has been deemed a glorious triumph for Mexico, its toughest battle remains active against a country whose auction houses have a track record of ignoring pleas to halt sales of cultural property—spoiler alert: it’s not England… It’s France. Since 2013, there has been, what David Smith from The Guardian deems, a “diplomatic wrinkle” between the French and other governments regarding the sale of Indigenous and other countries’ cultural heritage.
According to Vivienne Chow, a reporter at ArtNet News, “the auction market in France saw a dramatic uptick in 2022, with a spectacular 50 percent increase in overall sales across all categories compared to 2020.” It seems that this percentage “fueled the already high expectations of the country, particularly the city of Paris, to become a leading market in Europe post-Brexit.” As such, as the French continue to get their hands on such priceless artifacts, they will do anything in their power to auction it and continue to be the world’s leading authority on art. As the French proverb goes, “impossible n'est pas français.” (Impossible is not French.)
In September 2021, the Mexican Government tried to halt the sale of more than 70 artifacts from being auctioned in Munich, to no avail. The sale proceeded and, by September 22, more than 30 artifacts had already been sold. By the same token, “in September 2019, pre-Columbian artefacts were auctioned off in Paris despite both Mexico and Guatemala calling on Millon to cancel the sale.” In a quasi-victory for Mexico in 2019, ArtNet News called the action a “major flop” since “the sale's total did not even reach half of the lower end of the pre-sale expectation.” It seems that Mexico’s public and digital outcry “could be deterring buyers,” as Chow wrote in her November 25, 2022 article for ArtNet News.
Nevertheless, the sale of Mexico’s cultural heritage in any international auction house poses a huge problem for the #MiPatrimonioNoSeVende campaign. On April 3, the Parisian auction house Millon, sold “items from a private collection of pre-Columbian art.” Out of the 148 lots up for sale, as Carlie Porterfield from the Art Newspaper writes, “83 are archaeological objects that are protected under Mexican law, according to Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) and the Ministry of Culture.” In a statement released by INAH on March 23, 2023, the Secretary of Culture of the Government of Mexico, Alejandra Frausto Guerrero, appealed to “ethics and respect for cultural heritage, and on behalf of the Government of Mexico, made the request to the Millon Maison de Ventes Aux Enchères house to stop the offer and sale of the mentioned pieces, taking into consideration the historical, symbolic and cultural value of the goods that comprise it, superior to any commercial interest.” Furthermore, they urged “auction houses to reflect on ethical codes around the commercialization of illegally looted cultural assets” and invited others to “join the protection and safeguarding of cultural heritage by avoiding this type of commercial acts that are illegal and that threaten the heritage of humanity.”
In their spokesperson’s communications with ARTnews, the auction house revealed that they would be “mov[ing] ahead with the sale, adding that the Mexican state’s requests for restitution are “often unsuccessful because they are based on unfounded facts.” Furthermore, this unnamed spokesperson also mentioned that “The sale of all the objects is maintained because all lots have an irreproachable origin and answer perfectly to the criteria fixed by UNESCO’s convention ratified by Mexico and France…France is today one of the most rigorous countries in terms of laws governing the art market and the traceability of the provenance of objects and the Millon auction house, founded in 1928, is the guarantor of the law.”
The back and forth between the Mexican and French governments has continued to escalate with both sides launching noxious verbal attacks at the other, with the French calling the Mexican plea a “nationalist opportunism” and Secretary Guerrero accusing the French of “political obscurantism.” The Mexican Government also attempted to get UNESCO on their side, hoping that the involvement of the United Nations’ specialized agency would exert its influence to stop the sales.
Returning to the Millon auction on April 3rd, Porterfield reports that Guerrero “urged the auction house to stop the sale and take into consideration that the objects’ historical, symbolic and cultural value is “superior to any commercial interest,” according to the INAH statement. The Ministry of Culture and INAH have filed a complaint with Mexico’s attorney general and notified the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ legal department and Interpol.”
In all these cases, the Mexican Government cited a 1934 Mexican law that bans the export of Mexican artifacts, reiterating their government’s commitment to recovering Mexican cultural heritage from auction houses around the world. It seems that “the federal law is not applicable outside of Mexico.” Perez notes that while cultural heritage falls under the UNESCO 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property (UNESCO 1970 Convention),” this convention is “not applicable to facilitate returns of cultural heritage in all situations.” She also explains that “although the Mexican government’s third strategy is “auction cancelling,” the government may likely continue to be successful with its two other strategies, voluntary returns—by raising awareness—and confiscation—the legal pathway.
Just by taking a peek at the recent results for Millon’s April 3rd “Pre-Columbian” auction, the majority of the artifacts have had their prices “knocked down” with a Peruvian weaver box sold for €233 ($255) and a Michoacán Male Figurine sold for €100 ($109). The more expensive items sold in this auction were an “Important and Rare Cult Mask” from the Moche culture for €19,500 ($21,398), a “Ceremonial Jaguar Metate” from the Kingdom of Nicoya for €20,000 ($21,947), and a “Standing Figure” from Classic Veracruz culture for €30,000 ($32,920). Interestingly enough, all these items were sold at the lower end of the estimated appraisal value with some being sold for hundreds of dollars less with some speculating that fewer people are interested in buying these artifacts from the auction house. Therefore, it is clear that although the Mexican government has been, at the current moment, unsuccessful in negotiating with the French government to repatriate their cultural heritage, the impact that the #MiPatriomonioNoSeVende campaign has on French auctions is monumental.
Mexico’s battle to bring home their priceless cultural heritage is clearly far from over, though Perez notes that “approximately 9,000 returns of objects of cultural significance in just five years is a monumental achievement.” It appears, however, that this campaign is just getting started. If the Mexican government could recover almost 9,000 artifacts in 5 years, how many more will they be able to recover in 10 years? 20? 50? What about in the next century? This campaign has illuminated how powerful the internet and social media hashtags prove to be in an era where our eyes are glued to screens and the various social media applications. It is truly a tale of triumph in the face of hardships, legal obstacles, and stubborn Frenchmen. This unique campaign lends hope to other countries, like Cambodia, Greece, Afghanistan, and Yemen, who are still grappling with internationally-recognized auction houses and museums in hopes of getting back their cultural heritage. The #MiPatriomonioNoSeVende campaign has certainly opened new doors and hopefully, with evolving technology and techniques, we will one day see national headlines announcing the return of these artifacts. It would be a joy to see all those Mexican artifacts, listed on lifeless black backgrounds on Millon’s website, proudly displayed in a museum in Mexico and for the French to finally acknowledge the importance of these artifacts’ cultural, religious, and symbolic value to the Mexican people.
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