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Honduras' government
has recovered almost 1,000 pieces looted from its cultural heritage. However, Omar Talavera , chief of the Register and Control Unit of the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History (IHAH) said that they are still waiting to recover a small Mayan jade breastplate that country lent Mexico in 1999 for the exhibition “The Mayan people” at the Museum of San Ildefonso.
On July 28th, 1999 , seven days before the opening of the exhibition, the theft of the antiquity was discovered, when Honduran curators were going to place it with other antiquities in the showcase “ The Heron .”
It is a family heirloom found in an offering made by the ancient governors of the city of Copán under an altar, located at the foot of the Hieroglyphs Stairway and belongs to the Late Classic period.
The piece was insured for USD $100 thousand by Banorte-Generalli Group . It is part of the most ancient vestiges known in Copán and it is dated in 1400 BC .
In 2000, Mexican authorities delivered the amount of USD $100 thousand for the insurance of the statuette , which Honduras is still waiting to recover as part of its cultural heritage, said Talavera to EFE .
That same year, EL UNIVERSAL published an interview with Olga Joya , director of IHAH back then, who talked about her concern due to the lack of cooperation offered by the Mexican government. “The Mexican government has done nothing to clarify the theft of the breastplate that belonged to the collection ‘Honduras’ Treasures’,” she said.
“Under instructions from the government, it is forbidden for any archeological piece to leave the country for fear of something similar to what happened in Mexico, which by the way is the only country where they have stolen archeological pieces from us,” she said in that same interview. She also explained that it was not the first time Mayan archeological pieces from the government of Honduras were stolen, “I think that this is the second time it has happened; the first was about 20 years ago, and it was also in Mexico,” she said back in 2000.
After years of hard work, Honduras has recovered looted antiquities .
Last Wednesday, Honduras recovered 1,008 pieces of its archeological and religious heritage that were looted during the last ten years from different regions of that country, out of which 200 were found in Ohio , United States .
Out of the 1,008 looted pieces, only 50 are displayed to the public , but according to Héctor Portillo, manager of the IHAH, the rest will be displayed successively in the same cultural site.
“Now we have the chance to continue with preservation works and the dissemination of this heritage since it is a right of all Hondurans to know it,” said Portillo.
He added that the recovery of the pieces “has meant several years of effort, human, and material resources.”
Portillo highlighted the relevance of the joint work of the IHAH, the Honduras National Police , and the Special Attorney of Ethnic Groups and Cultural Heritage for the recovery of the 1,008 pieces. During the last 10 years, 18 persons have been bid to trial for the looking of these pieces.
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