/ARTS WEEKLY/MEXICO: Battle on for Return of Moctezuma’s Crown

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Diego Cevallos

MEXICO CITY, Dec 30 2002 (IPS) - The campaign to demand that Austria return the headdress of Aztec emperor Moctezuma will continue, despite the European country’s repeated refusal to do so, pledge Mexican cultural authorities and indigenous groups.

For the last 15 years, Mexico has been demanding the return of the ‘penacho’ – or "Kopilli ketzalli" – that belonged to Moctezuma Xocoyotzin (1466-1520), the last emperor of the Aztec dynasty, according to Mexican experts.

The fact that Austria claims to be the sole and legitimate owner of the headdress is not an adequate argument to justify keeping the artefact, says Sergio Arroyo, director of Mexico’s state-run National Institute of Anthropology and History.

The future of the penacho "remains open", Arroyo said after officials from Austria’s Ministry of Education and Culture stated recently that they would never return the centuries-old headdress.

The piece, made with feathers of the ‘quetzal’, a bird native to southern Mexico and Central America, and currently in danger of extinction, was taken from Mexico during the Spanish Conquest, some 500 years ago.

The trajectory of the headdress is not clear, but Austria purchased it in 1880, and it has been on exhibit in Vienna since 1929.

Efforts to win the return of the historic headdress gathered force after anthropologists, biologists and other experts from both Mexico and Austria drew up a plan to determine whether the artefact is authentic and to assess the state of its preservation.

The Austrian Ministry of Education and Culture gave the scientists the green light to study the piece – on display at the Vienna Museum of Ethnology – but only if it remained under glass.

A physical analysis of the headdress is not possible because of its fragility, say the Austrian officials.

Mexican ornithologists Dalia Ayala, who is participating in the investigations, said the museum authorities allowed her only to view the penacho through glass in a poorly illuminated room.

Nevertheless, Ayala was able to determine that the piece holds some 1,000 feathers, mostly quetzal, but also from other bird species.

"The penacho represents the sovereignty and the strength of the native cultures, and its return would reinforce our identity," says the non-governmental National Council of Tradition and Culture, Warriors of Knowledge.

Measuring nearly a metre in diameter, the headdress is believed to have originally included a gold helmet inlaid with precious stones.

According to some theories, the foreign journey of the headdress began during the Spanish Conquest when it was stolen by Hernán Cortés, who sent it back to his country, but the ship carrying the piece was assaulted by French pirates.

The feathered crown, symbolising the wisdom and power of emperor Moctezuma, remained in France for hundreds of years until it was auctioned off in Vienna, where it was stored for decades in poor conditions, say historians.

Wilfried Seipel, director of the Vienna Ethnology Museum, declared the piece the "indisputable property" of the Austrian state.

The president of the Austrian parliament, Heinz Fischer, offered Mexico the possibility of handing over the headdress as a loan for 99 years, but Austria’s ministerial authorities rejected such a plan.

Xokonoschtletl Gómora, a traditional Mexican dancer who has led several actions in Austria and Mexico demanding the return of the penacho, says he will not give up until he achieves his goal.

"After 16 years of marches, dances and public protests with Mexicans and foreigners, we will continue however long is necessary to win the return of the headdress, which many of us consider sacred, to the Mexican people," he told Mexico’s ‘Reforma’ newspaper.

Gómora says Moctezuma’s crown represents the identity of the Mexican people prior to the Spanish Conquest.

Historians and indigenous organisations say the recovery of the headdress would be just the beginning of a series of efforts to win the return of dozens of valuable pre-Hispanic objects they say were taken illegally from Mexico.

/ARTS WEEKLY/MEXICO: Battle on for Return of Moctezuma’s Crown

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Diego Cevallos

MEXICO CITY, Dec 30 2002 (IPS) - The campaign to demand that Austria return the headdress of Aztec emperor Moctezuma will continue, despite the European country’s repeated refusal to do so, pledge Mexican cultural authorities and indigenous groups.
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