A stolen 1527 record signed by Cortés will be returned to Mexico
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Thursday, November 7, 2024


A stolen 1527 record signed by Cortés will be returned to Mexico
The document with the signature of Hernán Cortés, the Spanish conquistador, was a payment order, dated April 27, 1527.

by Remy Tumin



NEW YORK, NY.- For roughly 30 years, a 16th-century purchase order signed by conquistador Hernán Cortés, who led the overthrow of the Aztec empire for the Spanish crown, had been missing from Mexico’s national archives and, instead, had made its way to private auction blocks across the United States.

The document from 1527 was stolen from the Archivo General de la Nación de México in Mexico City sometime before 1993, according to a court filing by the U.S. attorney for Massachusetts.

But over the summer, the FBI put an end to the illicit trafficking, even as the investigation on how the document had been stolen remained open. On Tuesday, federal prosecutors announced the recovery of the stolen document with the hopes of repatriating it to Mexico, where its value may not be associated with how much the purchase order would have fetched at auction.

Susan Elizabeth Ramirez, a chair emeritus of history and Latin American studies at Texas Christian University, said the recovery of documents like this “can change everything.”

“Without manuscripts, we can’t write history,” she said.

The manuscript is a payment order signed by Cortés on April 27, 1527, instructing his butler, Nicolás de Palacios Rubios, to purchase “pink sugar” from the pharmacy in exchange for 12 gold pesos. One side reflects the request and the other side records the payment. According to an affidavit, the receipt is handwritten, in Spanish, in iron gall ink on rag paper and measures about 8 1/2 inches by 6 inches.

The document belonged to the Fondo Hospital de Jesús at the Mexican archives. According to Mexican authorities, the collection was declared national property and was cataloged in 1929. A manuscript that remains in the collection has a record showing that 12 pesos were used to buy “pink sugar” for the navy’s pharmacy in connection with an expedition.




Cortés set sail for Mexico in 1519 with his sights set on overthrowing Aztec emperor Montezuma in the capital of Tenochtitlan. The Aztecs initially beat back the Spanish invasion, but Cortés returned in 1521 and took over the city in a siege that burned the lake-bound city to ruins and brought diseases such as smallpox that tore through the population. Within a few decades of the invasion, disease had killed off as many as 20 million Aztecs.

Ramirez said the document dated to a time when Cortés was exploring to the south of Mexico, around modern-day Honduras, a time when he awarded himself a private workforce of about 23,000 people. She said the description of “pink sugar” was most likely in reference to a refinery technique used to make molasses that left behind a hued sugar, something adjacent to brown sugar today.

After the manuscript was taken from Mexico, the document’s provenance cut across the United States. According to an FBI investigation, the manuscript was purchased at an auction in the 1990s by the founder of the Museum of World Treasures in Wichita, Kansas. His family consigned the document to Goldberg Coins and Collectibles in Los Angeles, and in 2019, a Florida resident purchased it at auction. That person then contracted with RR Auction in Massachusetts, where the document was put up for auction in June.

The Mexican government flagged the sale of the document to the FBI on June 6. The document received 22 bids; by June 8, when the FBI notified RR Auction of the possibility that the document had been stolen, the bid price was $18,626. The item was then removed from the auction house’s website.

“As soon as we got contacted, we put a stop to the sale, we notified the consignor, and there was no issue from them,” said Mark S. Zaid, a lawyer for RR Auction.

In a statement, the National General Archives of Mexico said it had sent a committee of experts to the FBI’s office in Boston in August to authenticate the document. The document is expected to be repatriated to Mexico.

Ramirez said trafficking of missing archival items was pervasive across Latin America. A number of items have been stolen from archives in Peru, and a large trove of documents was recovered by the Mexican government and U.S. law enforcement officials in New York City in February. Among the documents included was a letter written by Cortés.

“The problem is structural,” Ramirez said. “Until the archives are more professionalized, this will continue happening.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.










Today's News

November 26, 2022

The dinosaur bone market is booming. It also has growing pains.

He helps the realreal keep it real

A stolen 1527 record signed by Cortés will be returned to Mexico

Thieves steal ancient gold coins in German museum heist

Manx language, once almost silenced, is now talk of the town

Phillips announces highlights included in the Hong Kong 20th Century & Contemporary Art & Design Sales

Rare Constable drawing comes to auction at Halls after more than 40 years in a private collection

Lina Ghotmeh selected for 22nd Serpentine Pavilion and designed revealed

In Warsaw, mining a rich vein of Polish creativity

Paintings by Lovis Cornith currently on view at the Galarie Karsten Greve

2022 Ingram Prize winners announced

A lifetime of collecting: The Triay Collection of Himalayan Art at Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr

Birmingham Museums Trust acquires new photographic works by Arpita Shah, exploring South Asian female identity

"Into the Light: The Awakening" first solo show from photography duo The Masons

The visions of Octavia Butler

A trail of tradition in the foothills of northwest Argentina

Pablo Milanés, troubadour of the Cuban Revolution, dies at 79

Jean-Marie Straub, uncompromising filmmaker, is dead at 89

Che Lovelace now represented by Nicola Vassell Gallery

Newspaper legend Sir Ray Tindle's vast silver collection comes to auction at Ewbank's on December 8

Phillips' highlights from London New Now Auction showcasing Contemporary Artists

"Sunset: A Celebration of the Sinking Sun" on view at the Kunsthalle Bremen

They were ahead of the curve on diversity in classical music

Advantages of the Capital One Platinum

How to Write a Perfect Essay Outline?

How to buy an online lottery ticket in Singapore ?

How To Start A Photography Business




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Attorneys
Truck Accident Attorneys
Accident Attorneys
Holistic Dentist
Abogado de accidentes
สล็อต
สล็อตเว็บตรง

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site Parroquia Natividad del Señor
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful