The FBI has returned a 16th-century manuscript page signed by Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés to Mexico, decades after it was stolen from the nation’s archives.
Mexico asked the FBI’s Art Crime Team for help last year to track down the document, part of a missing collection of pages bearing Cortés’s signature, The New York Times reported.
A rare Cortés document
Special Agent Jessica Dittmer explained that the page is an original signed by Cortés on Feb. 20, 1527. It recorded payments in gold pesos to prepare an expedition to the Americas and included purchase instructions written in Old Spanish.
The manuscript provides a detailed account of the logistics tied to Cortés’s travels during Spain’s expansion into the New World. Dittmer said such pieces are classified as protected cultural property and carry immense historical value for Mexico.
FBI investigation
In a press release, the FBI stated that the manuscript had passed through multiple owners over the years and confirmed no charges would be filed. Authorities did not disclose where the page was recovered or who possessed it.
The investigation involved the New York City Police Department, the US Department of Justice, the FBI’s Atlanta office, and the Mexican government. Using open-source information, agents confirmed the page was in the United States and seized it from an undisclosed location with support from Atlanta and New York authorities.
US returns to Mexico 500-year-old manuscript signed by Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés
This image provided by the FBI shows the front of a letter signed by Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés from Feb. 20, 1527, that was returned to the government of Mexico. pic.twitter.com/77t3EzrrUo
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The FBI said the case has been added to the National Stolen Art File, and the search continues for other missing pages.
Archival discovery
Archivists at Mexico’s General Archive of the Nation first realized that 15 pages from the Cortés collection were missing during a microfilming project in 1993. Investigators believe the theft occurred between 1985 and 1993.
Authentication of the recovered page was made possible through a wax numbering system used in the mid-1980s and by matching the folio’s distinctive torn edges. Those same markers could help identify additional missing pages.
This is the second Cortés document returned to Mexico by the FBI. In 2023, the bureau repatriated a 16th-century letter in which Cortés authorized the purchase of sugar in New Spain, recording a payment order for 12 gold pesos of pink sugar.
Broader significance of the return
Veh Bezdikian, a supervisory special agent with the FBI in New York, said the United States remains one of the world’s largest consumers of art and antiquities. He added that this reality brings both opportunities and risks.
The FBI said it hopes the recovery will discourage trafficking of cultural property and credited close cooperation with Mexican authorities for the outcome.
Cortés captured the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, now central Mexico City, in 1521 and was appointed governor of New Spain by Charles V the following year. The viceroyalty later extended from present-day Washington state to Louisiana and across Mexico and Central America.
The 1527 manuscript reflected the growing importance of Pacific trade routes and New Spain’s efforts to link the Americas with Asia.
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