Mexico: artifacts

Mexico vests archaeological material in the state. Archaeological objects are property of the nation; export is banned except by presidential exception; private holdings must be registered with INAH. The governing law is Ley Federal sobre Monumentos y Zonas Arqueológicos, Artísticos e Históricos (1972); archaeological monuments property of the nation since 1897; the date Stratum treats as decisive is 1897 (the year of enactment — the exact commencement has not been checked, so the conservative reading is used). An object documented outside Mexico before that date is sold with the document cited; one documented only later is sold with a warning that Mexico could regard the export as unlawful, and the ownership history stated in full; one with no provenance at all is not listed.

Monumental and architectural sculpture and murals from Mexico — 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 Mexico is therefore the single most valuable fact on its record.