Source: US FBI
On August 13, the FBI returned a stolen manuscript signed by Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés to the government of Mexico.
“This is an original manuscript page that was actually signed by Hernán Cortés on February 20, 1527,” explained Special Agent Jessica Dittmer. She’s a member of the Bureau’s Art Crime Team and is currently embedded in FBI New York’s FBI-NYPD Joint Major Theft Task Force. The document, she said, “outlines the payment of pesos of common gold for expenses in preparation for discovery of the spice lands, so it really gives a lot of flavor as to the planning and preparation for unchartered territory back then.”
The repatriation of this priceless cultural artifact—which authorities believe was stolen in the 1980s or 1990s—was the result of close collaboration between the FBI, the New York City Police Department, the Department of Justice, and the government of Mexico.
“This could not have been possible without the collaboration of the Southern District of New York, as well as a partnership with the FBI’s attaché office in Mexico—who were a valuable liaison between FBI personnel within the United States—and, also, our foreign partners,” said NYPD Det. Rigel Zeledon, who investigated this case in partnership with Dittmer.
Significance of the manuscript
According to Dittmer, the document is historically significant because it contains a full accounting of the logistical and planning details related to Cortés’ journey to what eventually became the territory of New Spain. New Spain stretched from present-day Washington State southeast through Louisiana and down through Latin America. “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.
El Archivo General de la Nación—Mexico’s national archives—originally counted the repatriated manuscript among a collection of historical documents hand-signed by Cortés. But after microfilming the collection in October 1993 as part of an inventory process, the institution discovered that 15 pages of it had gone missing.
In 2024, the Mexican government requested the FBI Art Crime Team’s help in locating page 28 of the collection.
The FBI’s Art Crime Team maintains the National Stolen Art File, an extensive database of reference images and information about artworks and cultural artifacts known to be stolen. Thus, our international partners hoped that adding the missing page to the collection might help them find it.
With the Mexican national archive’s meticulous notes about the collection—even indicating which numbered pages went missing and the manner in which certain pages had been torn—investigators believed they could track it down through more traditional detective work.
“Det. Zeledon and I opened up an investigation to see if we couldn’t actually just bring that document home,” Dittmer recalled. “Rigel and I each look at things with a different perspective, a different set of teachings behind us—our legal classes and our backgrounds—and we’re able to work together to figure out next steps in not only finding the document, but also ensuring it is one in the same, and determining who else we need to contact and what else we need to do.”
Open-source research soon led them to believe the missing manuscript was likely located in the continental United States, eventually narrowing their search. The investigators then worked with FBI Atlanta and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York to get the investigative and legal support needed to find the relevant records and track down the missing artifact.
“As a group, we all worked through additional logistical steps to ensure that all the stakeholders formerly and currently in possession of the manuscript page received all necessary information to prepare for our seizure of the document,” Dittmer said. This included having these stakeholders sign away their claims to the document so the FBI could take legal possession of it, verify it, and eventually return it to its rightful owners.
It’s thought the newly recovered document was stolen between 1985 and October 1993, Dittmer said, based on the tell-tale wax numbering that archivists used between 1985 and 1986. In this way, the same exacting details that helped the investigators find the document also helped them authenticate it.
Deterring future thefts
No one will face prosecution in connection with this document’s theft because investigators assessed the manuscript “changed hands several times over” in the decades since its disappearance, Dittmer said.
Nevertheless, she said, investigators hope that the FBI and NYPD’s collective hunt for this cultural artifact will underscore the importance of returning cultural property to its rightful owners and that their determination to work this investigation despite the passage of time will deter potential criminals from engaging in the theft and trafficking of cultural artifacts.
This week’s repatriation marks the FBI’s second victory on the path to locating these historical documents and repatriating them to their rightful owners. The FBI successfully returned another one of these documents—a 16th century letter from Cortés authorizing a purchase of rose sugar—to the Mexican government in July 2023.
This manuscript signed by Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés was repatriated by the FBI to the Mexican government on July 19, 2023.
The FBI Art Crime Team is still determined to locate and repatriate the other missing pages.
Anyone located in the U.S. who has information about where these missing manuscripts might be is encouraged to contact FBI New York at nyartcrime@fbi.gov. You can also submit a tip to the FBI by calling 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324) or by visiting tips.fbi.gov. You can share information with the Bureau anonymously, and no clue is too small to potentially help us find these artifacts.
“The United States—for better or for worse—is one of the largest, if not the largest, consumer of art and antiquities,” said FBI Supervisory Special Agent Veh Bezdikian, who oversees the FBI-NYPD Major Theft Task Force. “We know how important it is for the United States to stay ahead of this, to support our foreign partners, and to try and make an impact as it relates to the trafficking of these artistic works and antiquities.”