Peru, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama and two other Latin American countries denounce auctions of pre-hispanic artifacts in France

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – “We deplore the continuation of the illegal trade in cultural goods that undermine our indigenous peoples’ heritage, history, and identity,” reads a joint statement issued by the embassies in France.

Peru, Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, Panama, and the Dominican Republic strongly reject the auctions of pre-Columbian objects planned in France in the coming days and take a new joint initiative against these auctions, which they consider illegal.

“We deplore the continuation of illegal trade practices in cultural objects that undermine the heritage, history, and identity of our indigenous peoples,” reads a joint statement issued by the embassies of these six countries in France.

They say the auctions promote looting, illicit trade, and money laundering, undermine modern archaeology, and undermine cooperation between countries to protect the heritage and integrity of cultures and “all of humanity.”

The new initiative follows a similar statement issued in early November by Peru, Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, and Honduras. It comes on the eve of auctions of prehispanic artifacts on Feb. 9, 11, and 18 in France.

Following another auction on Jan. 28 that was halted at the request of Mexico’s Culture Ministry, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Monday accused France of failing to regulate auctions of other countries’ cultural property.

“The auctions that are taking place in France are immoral. It is deplorable that the French government has not regulated this by law,” the president said at his morning press conference on the issue.

Mexico, which has been trying for years to obtain the return of privately owned objects that it considers part of its cultural heritage, is at odds with French legislation, which leaves it up to the owners of the objects to decide whether or not to hand them over to the country’s authorities.

In the new joint statement, the six Latin American countries recall this situation and express their will to work with the French government and Unesco to defend their heritage and their “firm intention to promote actions” to stop the sale.

“We call on all owners of cultural objects from our countries to return them to their place of origin and continue studying them in their context as elements of the living memory of the peoples of our Latin American countries,” the statement concludes.

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