FBI returns stolen document signed by conquistador Hernán Cortés to Mexico

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/14/hernan-cortes-document-mexico

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US officials did not say who had the 16th-century page that was missing from Mexico’s archives for decades

Nearly five centuries after Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés signed it and decades after someone swiped it from national archives, a priceless manuscript page has been returned by the FBI to Mexico.

The document contains a detailed accounting of the logistics related to Cortés’s journey to what eventually became New Spain – a territory that stretched from Central America to modern-day Washington state.

“This is an original manuscript page that was actually signed by Hernán Cortés,” said special agent Jessica Dittmer, a member of the FBI’s art crime team in New York. “Pieces like this are considered protected cultural property and represent valuable moments in Mexico’s history.”

Cortés landed in Mexico with a small army in 1519, when he formed alliances with local groups that opposed the Aztec empire, which helped him capture the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlán – modern-day Mexico City – just two years later.

The document is dated 20 February 1527, just days before one of Cortés’s top lieutenants was appointed co-governor of the conquered territory.

It was a key year for the formation of royal and religious institutions that would rule over the Indigenous peoples of Mexico until its 1810-21 war of independence.

The manuscript was initially stored in Mexico’s national archives, but archivists microfilming the collection in 1993 found that 15 pages had gone missing. Based on its wax numbering system, the FBI said the document was probably stolen between 1985 and 1993.

Mexico requested the help of the FBI’s art crime team last year for this particular page.

Investigators eventually narrowed the search to the United States and located the document, though the agency did not say who had it. The New York City police department, US Department of Justice and Mexico’s government were all involved in the investigation.

Because the document has changed hands various times over the years, no one will be charged for the theft, the FBI said.

It is the second Cortés document the FBI has returned to the Mexican government. In 2023, the agency returned a 16th-century letter from Cortés.

“Pieces like this are considered protected cultural property and represent valuable moments in Mexico’s history, so this is something that the Mexicans have in their archives for the purpose of understanding history better,” she said.