Mexico City, Nov. 1 (BNA): Three ancient artifacts that had been stolen and put up for auction in Italy were returned to Mexico on Friday as the Latin American country staged a global campaign to recover its art and antiquities.
These items, more than 2,300 years old, are a pottery vessel decorated with human figures and two ceramic faces.
Italy’s cultural heritage protection unit confiscated the pieces while inspecting the artifacts for auction, officials said. The Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that these materials were illegally exported from Mexico, Italian investigations reported.
“The people who buy these pieces and those who trade in these pieces are criminals. You share the responsibility if you buy something stolen,” Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said at a ceremony in Rome where officials returned the artifacts.
The Mexican Foreign Ministry said that Italy has so far returned 650 religious and antiquities to Mexico since 2013.
“It’s justice, it’s global culture. We have to give back to a country the things that belong to them,” Italian General Roberto Riccardi, who led the team that returned the artifacts, said on Twitter.
In September, the Mexican Foreign Ministry recovered stolen documents linked to the conquistador Hernan Cortes that were set to be auctioned with the help of US investigators.
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