Guatemala is preparing to recover one of its treasures.

The fragment of a Mayan stele dating from the 8th century and having narrowly escaped an auction was handed over to Paris on Monday by a French collector in Guatemala, her country of origin.

A ceremony was organized for the occasion at Unesco headquarters, which acted as mediator between the owner, France and Guatemala.

Both countries are signatories to the 1970 Convention on the Prohibition of the Illicit Import, Export and Transport of Cultural Property.

A new step for the safeguard of #CulturalHeritage!



An emblematic Mayan stele returns to Guatemala thanks to the voluntary surrender of the private collector Manichak Aurance and the mobilization of #Guatemala, #France and # UNESCO.https: //t.co/LPyzaWWzsT pic.twitter. com / zb8wOdvuQw

- UNESCO in French (@UNESCO_fr) October 25, 2021

A piece bought in the 60s

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.

Manichak Aurance, owner of the piece, then decided to withdraw the object from the sale and start 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.

“My dearest wish is for the fragment to join the rest of the fresco,” she said.

Very few works returned

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 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It constitutes "not only a masterpiece of sculpture" but "also and above all a formidable historical document", recalled Dominique Michelet, Mayanist archaeologist.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.

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