Mexico readies return of three pre‑hispanic artifacts from US

Mexico’s Secretariat of Foreign Affairs and the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) are preparing to receive three pre‑hispanic objects that were returned from the United States. The items – a 91 cm anthropomorphic clay figure of a warrior from the Ixtlán del Río style, a stone box from the central region of Guerrero, and an obsidian prismatic blade – were identified as belonging to the Tumbas de Tiro tradition and dated between 100 BCE and 600 CE. All three were seized in a Manhattan District Attorney’s antiquities‑trafficking investigation and handed over to the Mexican consulate in New York on 15 July 2026. They will be sent to Mexico City via diplomatic pouch for official delivery to INAH, in line with Mexican heritage law and President Claudia Sheinbaum’s cultural‑protection agenda. The restitution was made possible through cooperation with the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York prosecutor’s office.