[MSN] Smuggled artifacts stored in Dallas customs vaults returned to Mexico

[MSN]

Smuggled artifacts stored in Dallas customs vaults returned to Mexico
12:30 AM CDT on Wednesday, April 2, 2008

By DIANNE SOLÍS / The Dallas Morning News 
dsolis at dallasnews.com News assistant Javier García contributed to this
article.

A treasure-trove of about 100 artifacts, believed to be pre-Columbian, is on
its way to Mexico, its presumed home, U.S. customs agents and Mexican
diplomats said Tuesday.

Among the antiquities is a stone mask of a broad-featured man, which is
believed to come from the Olmec civilization, the oldest in the Americas,
and it dates as far back as 1000 BC, experts said. Other items include
figurines in jadeite, precious stones symbolically linked to fertility for
the people of ancient Mesoamerica and once valued more than gold.

"We're so very happy about the return of these pieces," said Eduardo Rea
Falcón, the consul in charge for Mexico's diplomatic post in Dallas. "It is
unfortunate that through looting and robbing, these items fell into private
hands."

One of the most stunning pieces is the mask, Mr. Rea said.

But when the experts at Mexico's National Institute for Anthropology and
History unpack the goods, they may unravel far more significant mysteries,
as authentication deepens, he said. "They may find something of incalculable
value," Mr. Rea said.

Equally mysterious is the trajectory of the smuggled artifacts into the
Dallas vaults of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The goods represent several seizures in Texas and New Mexico, including an
initial seizure in 2001, said Carlos Fontanez, a CBP spokesman in the
Houston office.

But Mr. Fontanez gave few details to the whodunit tale. No one has been
charged with smuggling the goods into the U.S., he said, though it is
illegal to traffic in antiquities under U.S. law. Since 1827, Mexico has
prohibited the exportation of archaeological items.

Some of the seizures were made by the Department of Homeland Security's
Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It has recently returned cultural
antiquities such as a 2,300 year-old vase from Italy seized at the Getty
Museum, and an entire 16th-century Mexican altar seized in Santa Fe, N.M.,
according to ICE news releases.

Mexico has long been an archaeologists' paradise.

But the sleuths of civilizations past warn that Mexico is rife with those
who make replicas of items and attempt to pass them off as authentic.
Looting inspires intense condemnation.

"As archaeologists, we strongly hold that looted artifacts should not be
allowed to be imported into the United States, and we celebrate the
interdiction of such artifacts by U.S. Customs," said David Freidel, a
professor in the Anthropology Department of Southern Methodist University.
"Mexico is very richly blessed with extraordinary pre-Columbian art...
highly coveted by private collectors who are ready to purchase from
unscrupulous dealers. It is a terrible problem."

Shown slides provided by U.S. Customs, Dr. Freidel said he believed the mask
was probably Olmec, but he questioned whether some of the artifacts were
from Mexico, or Central America.

A spokesman at Mexico's Institute of Archaeology and History noted that no
Mexican archaeologist has physically seen the pieces and they still need to
be verified.

Robert Drolet, an archaeologist with the Corpus Christi Museum of Science
and History, said he surveyed about a dozen items in 2001, when the first
seizure was made. Only three were Mexican and all were memorable, he said.
They included the stone mask, which has etchings on the cheeks – a sign of
an early Olmec writing system – and he identified a crawling baby and a
cupped hand, rendered in jadeite. All came from the Olmec civilization,
whose territory is now largely Veracruz and Tabasco .

"It is a remarkable collection," Dr. Drolet said. They are fantastic museum
pieces. It would have been nice to have some sort of information about how
the person it was seized from got it. ...Many of those Olmec artifacts must
have come from monumental art sites."

Dr. Drolet said he was baffled by the delay in returning the objects to
Mexico, which he was told were seized in South Texas.

Part of the delay in the return of the items came from the authentication of
the goods, said Mr. Rea, the Mexican consul. And the diplomat estimated that
the repatriation of the cultural treasures was one of the largest ever for
the Mexican government.

Mr. Fontanez acknowledged the delay in the return of the goods stemmed from
the authentication process.

"When someone brings an artifact in, someone has to determine that this is
the original stuff," he said. Among the "original stuff" are bows with
arrows, sandals, textiles and funerary urns.

"We don't doubt that there are pieces that are full of surprises," Mr. Rea
said.

News assistant Javier García contributed to this article.

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