A 500-year-old page detailing Cortés's expeditions was recovered and repatriated, drawing attention to the importance of cultural preservation and cooperation between nations.
FBI Repatriates 500-Year-Old Document Stolen from Mexico
FBI Repatriates 500-Year-Old Document Stolen from Mexico
The FBI has successfully returned a significant historical manuscript signed by Hernán Cortés back to Mexico.
The FBI has returned a valuable manuscript page, estimated to be over 500 years old, back to Mexico. The document is signed by the famous Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés and dates back to 1527. It is among 15 pages believed to have been stolen from Mexico's national archives between 1985 and 1993.
The repatriated manuscript details the logistics of Cortés's ventures, particularly payments made for supplies during his expeditions. Cortés is well-known for his role in the fall of the Aztec Empire and his significant contributions to the colonization of the Americas. His explorations notably led to the establishment of New Spain, which stretched across large areas of North America and parts of Latin America.
The document in question was written shortly after Cortés was appointed governor of New Spain by the Spanish crown. As part of an effort to catalog and preserve historical records, it was discovered that 15 pages were missing from the archives when they were microfilmed in 1993. Investigators found this particular page, bearing a wax number indicating it had been cataloged in the mid-1980s, suggesting it had been stolen during that timeframe.
In 2024, the Mexican government sought assistance from the FBI's art crime team to locate the missing artifacts, providing detailed notes on the stolen pages. Following open-source investigations, the FBI was able to pinpoint the document’s location in the U.S., although the agency did not disclose specifics about the find or its previous owner.
No criminal charges will be brought regarding the theft, as the document changed ownership several times and the trail had gone cold. Special Agent Jessica Dittmer, part of the FBI's art crime unit, emphasized the significance of the document in understanding historical events, noting that it offers insights into the expenses involved in expeditions intended to discover new trade routes, particularly to eastern and southern Asia.
This recovery occurs against a backdrop of heightened political tensions between the U.S. and Mexico over immigration and tariffs implemented during the Trump administration. Despite these issues, the FBI highlights its obligation as a significant market for antiquities to combat the illegal trafficking of cultural properties.
Dittmer remarked that artifacts like this manuscript are critical in grasping historical narratives and are considered protected cultural heritage, holding great value for Mexico and its people. The FBI has expressed its commitment to finding and returning the remaining pages still missing from the archive. Notably, this is not the first time the FBI has facilitated the repatriation of historically significant documents; another page from Cortés was returned to Mexico in 2023.
