Overview
- The original Códice Azcatitlan arrived in Mexico and opened at the Museo Nacional de Antropología on Thursday for a temporary exhibition that runs through December 31, 2026.
- The move is a loan from the Bibliothèque nationale de France that is paired with a reciprocal display of the Códice Boturini in France under the bilateral agreement between the two governments.
- Conservation rules limit display intensity and time: the manuscript is shown in very low light with a maximum of about 40 lux to protect fragile painted pages.
- France’s May 9, 2026 restitution law and subsequent parliamentary proposals provide a legal route for permanent transfer, but Mexican and French officials say negotiations and documentary provenance checks are ongoing and “nothing concrete” has been decided.
- The Azcatitlan, made in the late 16th–early 17th centuries and taken to France in the 19th century via Aubin and collector Eugène Goupil, is central to claims from Mexican institutions and indigenous communities and has prompted plans for further study, digitization, and technical conservation reviews.