Austria responds to Mexico: it will not lend Moctezuma’s plume

The Ethnographic Museum of Vienna, in Austria, informed Mexico that the plume of Moctezuma in at least 10 years because he is too fragile to be transferred from that country. This, after the president Andrés Manuel López Obrador would rule in favor of it, in the context of the visit to Europe that his wife, Beatriz Gutiérrez Müller, who heads the National Coordination of Historical memory, performed at Old continent.

Andrés Manuel López Obrador He asked for Austria lend to Mexico he plume of Moctezuma, feathered and jeweled, considered one of the most important prehispanic objects from the country, to be shown at an exhibition next year.

• The president will celebrate the pre-Columbian past in 2021 on the 500th anniversary of the fall of the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlán, before the conqueror Hernan Cortes.

The first president, who has asked the European powers to apologize for the abuse from it was colonial in what is now Mexico, urged Austria to lend the delicate brightly colored headdress believed to have worn Moctezuma before Cortés overthrew him. In a press conference, the head of the federal Executive Power stated about the plume of Moctezuma:

“The Austrians have completely taken over the plume (of Moctezuma) […] They did not even want to lend it to Maximilian of Austria (or better known as Maximilian of Habsburg, archduke who between 1864 and 1867 was emperor of the Second Mexican Empire dominated by the French) ”.

Take advantage of the trip

Comparing it to a “mission Impossible”, Andrés Manuel López Obrador recommended that he request the pre-Hispanic piece from Beatriz Gutiérrez Müller on a visit to One last week, during a European tour in which he is borrowing various artifacts that the government wants to exhibit: “Next year is going to be dedicated to that because the colonialists have told the story at your convenience”Said the president.

“The same thing always happens, those who conquer or invade have to justify this act of meddling and looting and atrocities, using a supposed superiority.”

AMLO.

The Spanish forces largely destroyed Tenochtitlán after a siege in 1521, ruins on which the Mexico City. The headdress measures more than 1.6 meters high and has more than 450 elegant and vivid green feathers of the quetzal birdmounted in a jewel and a crown with gold inlay. It is believed to have arrived in Europe in the 16th century and has been the subject of several requests for return by Mexico.

Historical details

The piece is popularly known as the “plume of Moctezuma“Because it could belong to Moctezuma Xocoyotzin, Aztec emperor from 1502 to 1520. But the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) de Mexico points out that there are no supporting elements and prefers to call the piece, held by the Vienna Museum of Ethnology, as “Plume of the Ancient mexico”.

It is also not clear how it got to Austria. The most likely hypothesis is that Moctezuma gave it to the Spanish conqueror Hernan Cortes, who would have sent it to King Carlos I of Spain, from the Austrian house Habsburg. On the occasion of the discovery of America, which is commemorated this Monday, the president Andrés López Obrador he has had expressions related to the conquest in recent days.