The Mexican government is intensifying its campaign to recover cultural heritage in France. Although since 2018 it has achieved the return of more than 16,300 objects from other countries, in France there have only been voluntary returns from individuals. Mexico faces auctions of artifacts without state response and seeks codices like the Codex Borbonicus, with support from indigenous people and some French parliamentarians, hoping that a bill will facilitate the process in the bicentennial of their relations.
Technology in the authentication and digital repatriation of cultural assets 💻
Processes like this show the role of technology in heritage management. Digital databases with standardized metadata allow cataloging dispersed objects. Multispectral imaging techniques help study codices without physically handling them, creating high-fidelity digital replicas. Blockchain is being explored to create unalterable provenance records, a key point in claims. These tools generate a technical inventory that supports the legal arguments for restitution.
The Napoleonic Code vs. the Lost Codex: a battle of papers 📜
The situation has a touch of irony: France, a country of written laws and universal museums, now sees how its own legislation could force it to return documents that, strictly speaking, are notarial acts of other civilizations. While a bill circulates in parliament, the auctions continue, as if heritage could have a airplane mode legal status. It seems that, sometimes, bureaucratic paperwork is the most difficult relic to repatriate.