Art Theft Archive Newsletter

Volume 1, No. 9

November 1979

Twelve Most Wanted Works of Art
Interpol's ninth annual lis

Mayan Heads Seized, Then Returned, in Mexico
Stucco heads are seized from a New Mexico gallery exhibition, under a warrant that the heads were stolen from a Mayan ruin, but then returned. At issue is whether the works were imported before 1970. A 1972 US law prohibits importing pre-Columbian architectural antiquities from Latin America. A treaty with Mexico, ratified in 1970, commits the US to cooperate in the return of an ever broader range of objects considered part of the Mexican patrimony.

Bulletin
Recovery of paintings stolen from J. Lewis Crozier Library and Art Gallery in Chester, Pennsylvania.