Italy returns 27 historical objects to Mexico after investigations by art hit squad

The Art Newspaper reports that Italy has returned 27 archaeological objects to Mexico after multiple investigations found they had been illegally imported, unlawfully sold, or held without documentation. The handover took place at the Mexican embassy in Rome and was led by Italy’s Carabinieri Tutela del Patrimonio Culturale (TPC), which said the objects—terracotta and clay figurines, sculpted heads, and fossils—collectively are worth “several tens of thousands of euros.” Among the recoveries were 16 artifacts seized in Florence after Peruvian authorities flagged a suspicious e-commerce listing, three fossilized fish from the Upper Cretaceous period (100.5–66 million years ago) intercepted in Venice from a shipment originating in Santa Catarina, Mexico, and two Maya terracotta statues dated to the Early Mesoamerican Classic period (100–400 AD) seized in Rome. In Milan and Monza, officials also recovered items including three Teotihuacan heads dated to 200 BC–650 AD from an estate inventory. Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) classifies the objects as inalienable national property, and Mexican officials said they will be transferred back to Mexico for decisions on museum display or return to places of origin; Mónica de la Mora Kuri added that Mexico has recovered 17,878 works under the administrations of Claudia Sheinbaum and Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

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