US returns stolen Hernán Cortés manuscript to Mexico. the United States returned to Mexico a 16th-century manuscript handwritten by Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés after it was looted from the country’s national archive to be illegally auctioned. The manuscript, which the digital news site La Lista reported was a letter from Cortés to the manager of his mines, Pedro de Castilleja, had been stored together with other colonial records at the national archive, but sometime between 2010 and 2017, the artifact was stolen from the archive, cut from its binding and smuggled into the United States. It was consigned to a New York-based auction house prior to being intercepted and seized by the New York State Attorney’s office. “This case demonstrates the lengths to which traffickers and looters will go to steal these priceless pieces of cultural and historical heritage,” said New York State Attorney General D.A. Bragg.
