“Theft of the Century”

On September 17, the National Museum of Anthropology celebrated its 58th anniversary as the largest museum in the country, an institution that looks young compared to other museums in the world.

Built by the architect Pedro Ramírez Vasquez, it was inaugurated in 1964 by President Adolfo López Mateos and since its inception, the main goal has been to record, preserve, restore and exhibit the most important archaeological and ethnographic collections in our country.

The National Museum of Anthropology is located in a privileged area of ​​Mexico City, which allows it to have an important projection from a national and international point of view. Today, it is the most visited museum in Mexico, with between 1.3 and 2.3 million visitors each year. On the other hand, the architecture of the place is interesting as it is an isometric quadrilateral which makes it easy to take a tour since if you don’t want to enter the room, you can enter through other entrances.

Among the events in the history of this institution, without a doubt, the most influential was what several newspapers called the “robbery of the century.” In 1985, 20 years after its opening, the museum registered the theft of 140 archaeological exhibits – the largest exhibited in Mexico until that year; Among the most important items that were stolen were the Zapotec mask of the god of bats, items from the tomb of King Pacal of Palenque, and the Yanghuitlán shield, an important example of Mixtec jewelry. Despite the figure disappearance scandal, the event quickly fell out of favor compared to other events such as the 1986 FIFA World Cup celebrations.

It took them almost four years to discover that they were not skilled thieves, but two middle-class young men who had stolen the items, and that they had never left the thieves’ house located in Ciudad Satellite. On July 12, 1989, the front pages of the national press picked up the event again, this time to report his recovery. Two days later, Carlos Salinas de Gortari, then President of the Republic, officially delivered the salvaged items.

The event became a fix for Mexican screenwriter and designer Manuel Alcala, who spent more than a decade researching the events in detail and co-wrote the screenplay for the feature film The Museum with director Alonso Ruizpalacios.

The Museum premiered in 2018 and won the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay at the Berlinale, the prestigious Berlin International Film Festival. Although inspired by these events, the film has many fictional elements; however, the screenwriter compiled interviews with insiders to gather as much information as possible.

More than 30 years later, the feature film recalled an unusual event that shocked Mexico and raised questions about how a national treasure was preserved, because from this robbery in museums and in general cultural sites, new security measures were installed, in addition, the impact was such that legal reforms have been applied in the Criminal Code to punish crimes such as theft and damage to national heritage, which today it would be appropriate to review and update again.

BERNARDO NOVAL
CEO MUST WANTED GROUP
@BERNIENEVAL AND @MUSTWANTEDG