Paris (AFP)
A ceremony was organized for the occasion at the headquarters of Unesco, which acted as mediator between the owner, France and Guatemala, two signatory countries of the 1970 convention on the prohibition of imports, the illicit export and transport of cultural property.
In 2019, during the sale of a hundred pieces, largely from the private collection of Manichak and Jean Aurance, Guatemala assured that a fragment of a stele came from Piedras Negras, a famous Mayan archaeological site that was looted.
The said stele had been photographed in situ by archaeologists at the end of the 19th century, thus proving its origin.
Mrs. Aurance, owner of the part, had then decided to withdraw the object of the sale and to begin negotiations with the country.
On Monday, the collector explained that she bought the piece in the 1960s, with her husband, who has since died, at an antique dealer in Paris.
She assures us that they "were totally unaware" that the work had been looted.
The French collector Manichak Aurance at Unesco in Paris on October 25, 2021 who handed over to Guatemala a fragment of a Mayan stele dating from the 8th century STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN AFP
"My dearest wish is for the fragment to join the rest of the fresco," she said.
The piece was handed over to the Guatemalan Ambassador to France, Franciso R.Gross Hernandez, who was delighted to recover an object "which tells us more about what happened 1,300 years ago on our land. ".
He thanked Unesco for its role, but called on countries and the institution to do more, explaining to AFP that only around 5% of the works claimed by the country were returned to him.
The stele fragment represents one of the kings of the last Mayan dynasty.
It constitutes "not only a masterpiece of sculpture" but "also and above all a formidable historical document", recalled Dominique Michelet, Mayanist archaeologist.
It will now join the collections of the Guatemala Archaeological Museum.
© 2021 AFP