National heritage was established in 2025 as a field of global dispute

The dying 2025 consolidated national heritage as one of the most active areas of Mexican cultural policy.

Between archaeological discoveries that deepened knowledge about pre-Hispanic civilizations, a diplomatic offensive against the illicit trafficking of historical goods and the restitution of thousands of illegally extracted pieces, the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) remained at the center of an agenda dedicated to the protection of memory and symbolic territories.

Throughout the year, heritage ceased to be just an object of academic study and became a space for political, legal and ethical confrontation.

The INAH, as the body responsible for its investigation and protection, coordinated scientific, legal and diplomatic actions in an international context where the commercialization of cultural goods continues to be frequent, sometimes linked to organized crime networks and illicit markets that threaten the historical identity of the country.

One of the most visible axes was the recovery of archaeological pieces. This month, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) formalized the delivery to the INAH of 52 objects voluntarily returned by individuals in the United States, a batch that was added to more than 2 thousand assets recovered during the first year of the administration of President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo.

The repatriation was managed through the Mexican embassy in the United States and the consulates in New York, Sacramento and San Francisco.

After the corresponding opinions, the institute’s specialists confirmed that the objects belong to the nation’s cultural heritage and present stylistic features of the Mexica, Teotihuacan and Zapotec cultures. Its chronology spans from 500 BC to 1521; that is, from the preclassical period until the Conquest.

For the Foreign Ministry, these restitutions reflected “one of the pillars of Mexican foreign policy: the defense of the country’s historical roots and the protection of its heritage against looting and international dispersion.”

In parallel, in 2025 a diplomatic offensive was developed against international auction houses. The federal Ministry of Culture (SC), headed by Claudia Curiel de Icaza, denounced and requested the cancellation of auctions in the United States and Europe that included Mexican archaeological assets.

In Germany, the Zemanek-Münsters firm tried to sell 18 pieces from Mesoamerican cultures, while Artemis Gallery accumulated at least three marketing attempts with lots of 29, 39 and up to 47 pieces, including cuauhxicallis and Olmec ceramic heads, the extraction of which from the national territory constitutes a crime according to the legislation in force since 1827.

One of the most relevant cases occurred in Paris, France, where the Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr house announced the auction of 48 pre-Hispanic pieces, divided into two sales: one in person, which included five objects classified as archaeological monuments, and another online with 43 additional pieces.

The Mexican government recalled that these assets “are inalienable, imprescriptible and property of the nation, so their presence outside the country implies illicit extraction.” All of these actions were part of the #MiPatrimonioNoSeVende campaign, which seeks to make visible the illegal and ethically questionable nature of the trade in heritage goods.

Legal procedures were activated and bodies such as the SRE and Interpol were notified, with the aim of stopping sales and advancing the repatriation of the pieces.

The annual balance also included progress in archaeological research and the rescue of historical sites. On the Costa Chica of Guerrero, INAH specialists documented the Paso Temprano or Corral de Piedra site, a 1,200-year-old pre-Hispanic city with defensive walls, residential areas, palatial sectors and a ball court.

In Calakmul, Campeche, a limestone panel reused by the ancient Maya was discovered, containing representations of captives and glyphs associated with the Kaanu’l dynasty, providing new information about the urban extension of the site and its historical conflicts with Tikal and Dzibanché.

Among dissemination and historical commemoration actions, the 500 years of the founding of Tlaxcala stand out, where the INAH delivered facsimile and digital documents of the Glasgow manuscript and council minutes, which strengthened public access to documentary memory, as well as the conclusion of the restoration of 27 pre-Hispanic incense burners recovered in Cuautitlán, state of Mexico, which allowed the stabilization of ritual pieces dated between 1350 and 1521.

Interinstitutional coordination was consolidated with the transition in the direction of INAH. Diego Prieto Hernández, at the head of the institution for nine years, left the position to assume the Strategic Unit of Living Cultures, Intangible Heritage and Interculturality, while Joel Omar Vázquez Herrera assumed the direction of the organization.

During Prieto Hernández’s administration, outstanding projects were carried out, among them the archaeological rescue on the Mayan Train route, with 63 thousand documented construction elements, more than 1.8 million ceramic fragments and 2,600 pieces under restoration.

Additionally, museums and sites were opened or renovated in Palenque, Kabah, Dzibilchaltún, Chichén Itzá, Tulum, and Calakmul, significantly expanding knowledge about the Mayan civilization.

Dissemination actions and assistance reflected the constant interest in cultural heritage. The five most popular archaeological zones, Chichén Itzá, Tulum, Teotihuacan, El Tajín and Monte Albán, received more than 5 million people.

Between restitutions, international litigation, archaeological finds and dissemination actions, it was confirmed that heritage is today a field of global dispute.