MEXICO CITY.- After a 7-year process conducted by legal and diplomatic ways before the German Government, which concluded with success, Mexico recovered 49 archaeological pieces illegally subtracted from national territory.

This is the first delivery made to Mexico of Prehispanic objects seized in 2004 in Frankfurt, part of the Patterson Collection.

Repatriation of the cultural goods was possible thanks to the will and cooperation of the German Government and the joint work in the matter of recuperation of cultural goods illegally subtracted done by the Mexican Foreign Affairs Ministry (SRE), the Office of the Mexican Attorney General (PGR) and the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).

After legal and diplomatic procedures (presentation and report ratification before PGR; archaeological report issue, request of international legal assistance, seizure of the Prehispanic pieces) to recover the historical collection, German authorities at Hesse, through the State Investigation Bureau, resolved to deliver the 49 seized objects.

Devolution of the Pre-Columbian pieces took place at the seat of the Hesse State Investigation Bureau, in Wiesbaden, 20 kilometers away from Frankfurt, in a ceremony presided by the sub secretary of the Ministry of Science and Art in Hesse, Ingmar Jung, in representation of the minister Eva Kühne-Hörmann, with the presence of the Mexican Ambassador in Germany, Francisco Gonzalez Diaz, and the general director of INAH, Alfonso de Maria y Campos.

The delivery of the Prehispanic lot took place in a symbolic way with the delivery of a greenstone mask and the signature of the corresponding protocols.

Objects were packed by the State Bureau under the supervision of a specialist from the INAH National Coordination of Cultural Heritage Conservation, to be transported to the General Consulate of Mexico in Frankfurt, where they were secured until April 18th when the diplomatic pouch will travel to Mexico.

Within the framework of the Federal Law on Artistic and Historical Monuments and Zones, the Foreign Affairs Ministry, the Office of the Attorney General and the National Institute of Anthropology and History will continue working to recover this heritage, reasserting their compromise in the safeguard of the cultural goods of the Nation.