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Stolen 1527 Hernán Cortés Manuscript Returned to Mexico

Aug 15, 2025 | World

August 15, 2025

Nearly 500 years after Hernán Cortés signed it — and decades after it vanished from Mexico’s national archives — a rare 1527 manuscript has made its way home, thanks to the FBI’s art crime team.

The page details logistics from Cortés’s rule in “New Spain,” just days before one of his top lieutenants became co-governor. Archivists discovered it missing in the early ’90s, part of a 15-page theft likely carried out between 1985 and 1993.

Tracked to the U.S. last year, the document was recovered with help from NYPD, the DOJ, and Mexican authorities. No charges will be filed, as it changed hands multiple times.

It’s the second Cortés document returned to Mexico in two years — a small but meaningful victory in preserving the country’s history.

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