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3h ago

FBI Repatriates 500-Year-Old Cortés Manuscript Page to Mexico

Authorities say the page will not trigger prosecutions after investigators traced its convoluted ownership history

Composite image LEFT: Engraving of Hernando Cortez by W. Holl (Photo by Chris Hellier/Corbis via Getty Images) RIGHT: This image provided by the FBI shows the front of a letter by Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés from Feb. 20, 1527, that was returned to the government of Mexico on Aug. 13, 2025, by the FBI. (FBI via AP)
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Overview

  • The FBI handed over the Feb. 20, 1527 page signed by Hernán Cortés to Mexico’s General Archive of the Nation on Aug. 13 following a joint probe with the NYPD and U.S. Attorney’s Office
  • Authentication drew on a distinctive wax-numbering system and microfilm records to date the theft to between 1985 and 1993
  • Investigators located the manuscript in the United States and arranged for all successive possessors to relinquish claims before repatriation
  • The page has been entered into the FBI’s National Stolen Art File but will not prompt criminal charges due to its passage through multiple owners
  • Mexican and U.S. authorities are still seeking information on 14 other missing pages from the same collection and have appealed for public tips