Stela Fragment from El Peru

Stela Fragment from El Perú

At some point in the late 1960s, the ancient Mayan city now known as El Perú/Waká was discovered by oil prospectors. Almost immediately, it and several other nearby sites in the northwest Peten region of Guatemala (within today’s Laguna del Tigre National Park) began to have their stelae and other pieces of intricately carved monumental architecture toppled, broken, and in some instances, spirited out of the country.

Among them was this stele fragment, the central portion of a stela possibly from the Miradór group. It was likely carved and erected during the 11th century C.E., and depicts part of a belt worn by an unidentified Mayan ruler. The carved belt is adorned with a mask representing an unidentified deity, possibly Kinich Ahau, standing on an enemy’s head.

Renewed efforts to document, survey and excavate the site in the past decade have also better documented the multi-decade history of looting of El Perú/Waká. Dr. Ian Graham, then of Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, recounts in his biography, "The Road to Ruins", that when he first arrived in 1971 to survey the site, numerous stela were broken and some sections missing, even as most of the site remained hidden in the jungle. Subsequent timbering and use of the region’s ruins as drug running bases further threatened the archaeological sites in the area.

According to Archaeology Magazine, at least three other complete or fragmentary stelae are known to have been removed from El Perú/Waká at around the same time. These include a fragment of stela 33 at the Cleveland Museum of Art (the first El Perú/Waká antiquity to surface abroad, in 1967), and stella 34, currently held by the Kimbell Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. A separate side panel from stela 33 was also reported to have been sold at auction, but to whom and when is unknown. The Dallas Museum of Art also holds an altar stone that, based on iconography, may also derive from El Perú/Waká.

Dr. Graham learned of that this particular stele fragment was slated for sale on November 23rd, 1998 at Sotheby's pre-Columbian auction. Sotheby’s staff informed the consigner that the item was likely “hot” and that it would be best for everyone if it was returned. The owner agreed to the return and solicited the help of the New York-based law firm of Herrick Feinstein, known for their previous experience representing Guatemala in cultural heritage restitution matters.

1

Monument – obelisks, stelae, tombstones, totem poles

Fragment

Maya

Sotheby's

Unnamed individual

Guatemala

Damien Huffer

Jason Felch