2 Maya Ceramic Cylinders

Maya Ceramic Cylinders

In January 2011, Guatemalan officials notified ICE that Skinner Auctions was offering four Maya ceramic vessels for sale, which they suspected had been stolen and trafficked into the United States.

When questioned by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations unit, the auction house was unable to provide proof of legal export from Guatemala or import into the US. Dr. Charles Golden of the anthropology department at Brandeis University in Boston later determined that of the four suspect artifacts, two ceramic vessels were genuine antiquities of Maya origin from Guatemala. The other two works were determined to be fakes.

The two authentic artifacts were polychrome cylinders from the Maya Classic Period. The smaller vessel depicts three kneeling Maya dignitaries wearing feathered headdresses. The larger cylinder shows warrior deities with bound captives. It is unknown how or when the works left Guatemala. No provenance was given for the smaller cylinder, but the Skinner catalogue listed the provenance of the larger vessel as Robert Stoetzer, a restorer and authenticator of pre-Columbian art.

In February 2012, the Maya cylinders confiscated by HSI were repatriated in a ceremony held at the Guatemalan Embassy in Washington, D.C. These pieces were returned along with six pre-Columbian artifacts seized in a separate action by US Customs in 2009.

2

Vessel – pots, amphorae, vases, kraters

Maya

Skinner Auctions

Robert Stoetzer

Guatemala

Chris Mechelke

Lisa Duffy-Zeballos