Mexico’s Ministry of Culture has called on eBay to remove a sale listing for 195 pre-Columbian artifacts, claiming the artifacts were obtained through “illegal mining” and should be returned to their countries of origin.
It is reported The Art NewspaperThe case became public after Mexican Culture Minister Claudia Curiel de Icaza posted on In a letter sent to eBay, Curiel de Icaza asked the company to “immediately cease sales and return these items to the Mexican government,” adding that the export of such items has been illegal since 1827.
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INAH’s legal arm “filed a complaint with the Mexican Attorney General’s Office and notified its Foreign Ministry, Interpol and U.S. authorities, including Homeland Security Investigations, to block the sale.” Tan. But the confidentiality policy surrounding the complaint means there is no way of knowing which 195 of the thousands of items sold through Coins Artifacts are the subject of the claim.
when contacting a person The Art NewspaperThe administrator of Coins Artifacts, who calls himself Tom, declined to give his last name and said he was unaware of the Mexican government’s statement. He later told the publication that the sale of the items was legal and that he purchased them from New York’s Arte Primitivo gallery. The seller tells us that before that, they had been in a private collection in Nevada, owned by David Harner of Arkansas in the 1950s and 1960s. tan.
He further claimed that “the Mexican government is trying to intimidate and shame people on social media into returning items they have no right to return.”
An eBay spokesperson told Tan The company is investigating the listings and will take action if they cannot be sold legally.
This is far from the first time the Mexican government has tried to block the sale of antiquities. In recent years, China’s Ministry of Culture has frequently singled out sellers or auction houses for providing such materials on social media.
