In a sign of growing international cooperation in the restitution of looted artifacts, Portugal has returned three pre-Columbian objects to Mexico. This will be the first time Portugal has repatriated unlawfully acquired antiquities to that country.
The three pieces represent distinct pre-Hispanic periods and cultures. They include a Shaft Tomb Culture female figure, a Maya painted vessel, and a Zapotec urn.
According to a press release from Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the handover took place at the Mexican embassy in Lisbon on February 12. The objects will be returned to Mexico in the coming weeks.
“This return confirms that international cooperation protects who we are,” said Claudia Curiel de Icaza, Mexico’s Secretary of Culture. “Each restitution restores memory and identity to Mexico and reaffirms the shared commitment to combating the trafficking of cultural property.”
The objects were originally flagged by the embassy in Portugal, which notified Portuguese authorities of their existence. Specialists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), an agency of the Ministry of Culture, subsequently reviewed photographs provided by Portuguese officials. Based on their findings, the items were secured by agencies including the Judicial Police; an in-situ inspection by Mexican archaeologist Aline Lara Galicia later confirmed their authenticity.
Perhaps the most spectacular of the three artifacts is the female figure, which is in the graceful Tala-Tonalá style of the Shaft Tomb Culture of Western Mexico and dates to between 300 and 600 CE. Modeled in clay and measuring 17 inches high, the kneeling figure—associated with fertility rituals—wears a skirt and a headdress and bears scarification marks on her shoulders. It became the subject of an investigation by the Lisbon Public Prosecutor’s Office after surfacing at a planned auction in 2024.
The second of the three pieces returned is a painted vessel from the Maya Classic period (600–900 BC). Decorated with figures and glyphs, it likely originated in southeastern Mexico and may have been used for the ritual drinking of beverages like cacao. It was seized by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the city of Guimarães.
The third artifact is a Zapotec funerary urn from the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. Dating between 600 and 1200 CE, it represents Cocijo, the Zapotec deity of rain and thunder. It was confiscated by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Évora-Estremoz.
The objects’ repatriation reflects Mexico’s intensifying efforts to identify trafficked artifacts, halt their illegal sale, and negotiate their return through legal and diplomatic measures. Although these initiatives have met with mixed success, particularly in France, Omar Vazquez Herrera, director of the INAH, told French newspaper Le Monde this week that the country has recovered more than 16 thousand artifacts since 2018. But in France, he noted, “only private citizens have returned items.”
