FBI returns stolen Hernán Cortés manuscript to Mexico

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MEXICO CITY (AP) — Nearly five centuries after Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés signed it and decades after someone swiped it from Mexico's national archives, the FBI returned a priceless manuscript page to Mexico on Wednesday.

The FBI said in a statement that the document had changed hands various times over the years, so no one will be charged.

“This is an original manuscript page that was actually signed by Hernán Cortés on February 20, 1527,” said Special Agent Jessica Dittmer, a member of the FBI’s Art Crime Team. By then, Cortés had conquered the Aztec empire in 1521, two years after landing in present-day Mexico.

While archivists at Mexico’s General Archive of the Nation were microfilming their collection of documents signed by Cortés in 1993, they discovered that 15 pages of the manuscript were missing. They believe it was stolen between 1985 and 1993.

Mexico requested the help of the FBI’s Art Crime Team last year for this particular page.

The FBI 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, U.S. Department of Justice and Mexico’s government were all involved in the investigation.

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

“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.