The goal: bring home archaeological pieces sold at auction or seized abroad, and stop the illicit trafficking that takes Mexico's heritage out of the country.

This article by El Chamuco Staff originally appeared in the November 7, 2026 edition of El Chamuco, a Mexican political cartoon and news magazine.

(NOVEMBER 7, 2026).- The Government of Mexico is moving forward in drafting a protocol to coordinate the recovery and repatriation of Mexican cultural property located abroad, as well as to strengthen institutional actions against the illicit trafficking of heritage.

The Secretariat of Culture, through the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs (SRE), and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco), held the second working workshop to develop the document called the Protocol for the Repatriation and Recovery of Cultural Property.

Archaeological pieces laid out on a table

Photo: INAH

The meeting took place on November 4, 2026, at the National Museum of History, located in Chapultepec Castle, with the participation of officials and specialists from the institutions involved.

INAH’s technical secretary, José Luis Perea González, said that the defense and preservation of cultural heritage requires close collaboration between institutions to establish mechanisms for protection and repatriation.

INAH post on X about the protocol

INAH post on X

He explained that the document seeks to build a proposal for an institutional policy to recover, restitute and repatriate cultural property. He also highlighted its relationship with the cultural rights of Indigenous and Afro-Mexican peoples, whose communities promote the conservation of their heritage through spaces such as community museums and temples.

For his part, INAH’s director of World Heritage, Francisco Vidargas Acosta, explained that the protocol will be a document open to updating as the problems, contexts and international norms related to the recovery of cultural property change.

Unesco’s national culture officer in Mexico, Carlos Tejada, highlighted the joint work and noted that eradicating the illicit trafficking of cultural property is one of the relevant issues of international cooperation.

What Does the Protocol Include?

The document will consist of ten sections: presentation; general framework and background; legal and regulatory framework; competent authorities; strategies and guidelines for action; general course of action; public registry of cultural property; follow-up, safekeeping and destination; glossary of terms, and implementation instruments.

Two ceramic figurines

Photo: Secretariat of Culture / INAH

Its scope covers cases in which INAH learns of heritage objects of possible Mexican origin located in other countries and those that require its intervention to identify, analyze, document, manage, receive, safeguard or follow up on them.

Among the scenarios considered are sales and auctions of cultural property, as well as seizures, confiscations, forfeitures and voluntary handovers that require a coordinated institutional response.

The work continues the Cooperation Workshop for the Recovery and Repatriation of Cultural Heritage, held on June 26 and 27, 2025, in Hermosillo, Sonora. At that meeting, lines of collaboration and exchange of experiences were established among different areas of INAH, the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs and Unesco’s representation in Mexico.

In the second session, among other officials, INAH’s national coordinators of Archaeology and of Cultural Heritage Conservation, Francisco Mendiola Galván and Thalía Velasco Castelán, took part, along with representatives of the institute’s centers in seven states in the north of the country and authorities of the National Museum of History.

Carved stone head with a headdress

Photo: INAH

On behalf of the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs, María José Buerba Romero, director for the Restitution of Cultural Heritage, and María de Lourdes Ruíz Pastrana, director of Cultural Diplomacy, took part.

The drafting of the protocol seeks to establish criteria and procedures so that Mexican institutions act in a coordinated manner when heritage property is located abroad, and the processes necessary to achieve its recovery.

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