Guatemala: artifacts

Guatemala vests archaeological material in the state. Archaeological objects belong to the state; export prohibited. The governing law is Decreto 425 (1947); Ley para la Protección del Patrimonio Cultural de la Nación, Decreto 26-97; the date Stratum treats as decisive is 1947 (the year of enactment — the exact commencement has not been checked, so the conservative reading is used). An object documented outside Guatemala before that date is sold with the document cited; one documented only later is sold with a warning that Guatemala could regard the export as unlawful, and the ownership history stated in full; one with no provenance at all is not listed.

The United States restricts import of Guatemala archaeological material of 12000 BCE – 1524 CE and Hispanic-period ecclesiastical material c. 1524–1821 under the CPIA (CBP Dec. 12-17; extended CBP Dec. 22-24, restricted since 1997). Entry needs the export certificate or proof the object left Guatemala before 1997. Domestic resale of material already lawfully in the US is not restricted by this, but the paper is what a buyer will ask for.

Monumental and architectural sculpture and murals from Guatemala — stelae, altars, lintels, wall panels, wall art — need a source-country export certificate to enter the United States under the Pre-Columbian statute (19 U.S.C. 2091–2095 (Pre-Columbian Monumental or Architectural Sculpture or Murals statute, 1972)), since 1973.

US courts have applied foreign patrimony laws through the National Stolen Property Act (United States v. McClain, 1977; United States v. Schultz, 2003): an object exported after a clear vesting law can be stolen property in the United States even when no US import restriction existed at the time. The date of the earliest document that places an object outside Guatemala is therefore the single most valuable fact on its record.