The Aubin Tonalamatl
Object or Group Name
The Aubin Tonalamatl
Case Summary
This case of this Aztec codex represents a rare example of repatriation by theft. In June 1982, a 36-year-old Mexican attorney and journalist named José Luis Castañeda del Valle stole the Aubin Tonalamatl, an important Aztec codex, in broad daylight from the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris.
Posing as a student and presenting a false student ID and permission letters, he convinced curators to let him see the document and immediately put it into his jacket and left. He quickly brought it to Mexico City and donated it to the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).
Castañeda del Valle had provided his real address when he registered as a reader at the Bibliotheque Nationale. He was arrested at his home in Cancun, Mexico in August 1982, but subsequently released and celebrated by the media for his "act of national heroism."
The Aztec liturgical calendar had first surfaced as an identified ‘kalendario ydolatrico’ within the collection accumulated by Italian aristocrat Lorenzo Boturini Benaducci (1702-51). Benaducci's entire collection was confiscated on his expulsion from New Spain in the mid-1740s.
The codex likely passed through several hands before Americanist Alexis Aubin purchased it from Frédéric de Waldeck for 2,000 francs on October 24, 1841. Waldeck had owned pages 9-20 of the manuscript from at least the early 1800s, after possibly purchasing them from fellow artist Carl Nebel, who himself likely purchased them from the estate of Mexican astronomer Antonio de León y Gama in 1802.
Eugène Goupil, of Mexican and French origin, eventually purchased Aubin's collection of 383 assorted Mesoamerican manuscripts, including the original pages 9-20 of this codex, in 1889, together with pages 3-8 acquired from parties unknown. His widow donated the nearly complete codex to the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, France in 1898. It was kept there for 150 years until its theft by Castañeda del Valle.
France notified Mexican authorities of the theft but Mexico refused to return it, claiming it had vital status as Nahuatl cultural patrimony and was of national importance. In 2009, Mexico and France agreed for the codex to be on permanent loan to Mexico, requiring renewal every three years.
Posing as a student and presenting a false student ID and permission letters, he convinced curators to let him see the document and immediately put it into his jacket and left. He quickly brought it to Mexico City and donated it to the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).
Castañeda del Valle had provided his real address when he registered as a reader at the Bibliotheque Nationale. He was arrested at his home in Cancun, Mexico in August 1982, but subsequently released and celebrated by the media for his "act of national heroism."
The Aztec liturgical calendar had first surfaced as an identified ‘kalendario ydolatrico’ within the collection accumulated by Italian aristocrat Lorenzo Boturini Benaducci (1702-51). Benaducci's entire collection was confiscated on his expulsion from New Spain in the mid-1740s.
The codex likely passed through several hands before Americanist Alexis Aubin purchased it from Frédéric de Waldeck for 2,000 francs on October 24, 1841. Waldeck had owned pages 9-20 of the manuscript from at least the early 1800s, after possibly purchasing them from fellow artist Carl Nebel, who himself likely purchased them from the estate of Mexican astronomer Antonio de León y Gama in 1802.
Eugène Goupil, of Mexican and French origin, eventually purchased Aubin's collection of 383 assorted Mesoamerican manuscripts, including the original pages 9-20 of this codex, in 1889, together with pages 3-8 acquired from parties unknown. His widow donated the nearly complete codex to the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, France in 1898. It was kept there for 150 years until its theft by Castañeda del Valle.
France notified Mexican authorities of the theft but Mexico refused to return it, claiming it had vital status as Nahuatl cultural patrimony and was of national importance. In 2009, Mexico and France agreed for the codex to be on permanent loan to Mexico, requiring renewal every three years.
Number of Objects
1
Object Type
Information Artifact – books, seals, plaques, scrolls
Culture
Aztec
Private Collector
Jean-Frédéric Waldek
Joseph Marius Alexis Aubin (bought from Waldek - 1841);
Charles Eugène Espidon Goupil (bought from Aubin - 1889).
Joseph Marius Alexis Aubin (bought from Waldek - 1841);
Charles Eugène Espidon Goupil (bought from Aubin - 1889).
Museum Name
Bibliotheque Nationale (France)
Receiving Country
Mexico
Sources
Aubin Tonalamatl
https://www.loc.gov/item/2021668125/
INAH to Keep Codex Stolen from French National Library
https://mexiconationalmuseumanthropology.blogspot.com/2009/02/inah-and-stolen-maya-codex-from-french.html
Reppas, M.J. II 2007. Empty International Museums' Trophy Cases of Their Looted Treasures and Return St es and Return Stolen Pr olen Property to the Countries of Origin o the Countries of Origin and the Rightful Heirs of Those Wrongfully Dispossessed. Denver Journal of International Law and Policy 31(1): 93-123.
https://digitalcommons.du.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1270&context=djilp
Antiquity , Volume 60 , Issue 228 , March 1986 , pp. 29 - 35
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/abs/return-of-cultural-property/6C84CF962D6E0A0B053AE2E0455291F7A STOLEN RELIC IS A PROBLEM FOR MEXICANS New York Times, Aug 29, 1982 https://www.nytimes.com/1982/08/29/world/a-stolen-relic-is-a-problem-for-mexicans.html
MOLA Contributor(s)
Damien Huffer
Peer Reviewed By
Jason Felch
Citation
“The Aubin Tonalamatl,” Museum of Looted Antiquities, accessed April 12, 2026, https://mola.omeka.net/items/show/1892.