Mexico Negotiates the Temporary Return of Moctezuma Headdress
Codex of Moctezuma and Headdress. Photo: Travis S., Flickr
Mexico Negotiates the Temporary Return of Moctezuma Headdress
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Monday, January 24, 2011 | News
Negotiations conducted for 3 years by the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) and the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) with the Austrian Government, are about to reach an historic agreement that would bring Moctezuma´s Headdress back to Mexico on a temporary basis later this year.
Moctezuma II, from Historia de la conquista de México by Antonio de Solis
This collaboration project between museums will hopefully allow for a better understanding of the headdress and will also enable the Mexican people to see the piece first-hand. The once spectacular but now extremely fragile headdress is made up of 400 quetzal feathers and mounted in gold and studded with precious stones.
It is traditionally believed by Mexican people to have been the piece worn by Montezuma II when the Spanish arrived in 1519.
According to the Latin American Herald Tribune, Austrian experts contend that the feather-work crown did not in fact belong to Moctezuma but instead was an ornamental element used by priests, although they acknowledge the headdress’ significance in Mexican culture.
The headdress became part of the collection that Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria – nephew of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor – held at Schloss Ambras in Innsbruck, Austria at the end of the 16th century. It was only in the 19th century that that the headdress was determined to be of Aztec origin.
It was only in the 19th century that the headdress was determined to be of Aztec origin
In February 2010 scientific analysis was conducted on the piece to determine its physical state and identify the necessary restoration processes that would allow its eventual transport and exhibition in Mexico.
In order to secure the loan the Mexican government has stated that it acknowledges that the headdress is owned by the Austrian government and that ownership of the piece is not an issue.
In fact, there have been calls in the past by various Austrian politicians to repatriate the piece, which has been kept for over five years in a warehouse at the Museum of Ethnology in Vienna.
In exchange for the headdress, Austria would receive on loan the golden stagecoach used by Maximilian I of Mexico, emperor during the Second Mexican Empire from 1863 to 1867 and brother of Franz Joseph I of Austria.