Mexican authorities have demanded a halt to an upcoming auction of Mexican artifacts in Louisville, Colorado, alleging that they were stolen.
The auction was scheduled to be held at Artemis Fine Arts in Louisville, Colorado, owned by Bob and Teresa Dodge, on Friday last week. Titled “Fine/Visual Art, Ancient, Ethnographic Art“, a total of 409 lots were scheduled to go up for auction – including 80 works of Mexican origin.
The works were flagged by Mexico’s federal agency, the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), one of whose roles is to protect the country’s cultural heritage.
Culture Secretary Claudia Curiel de Icaza said. “Our heritage is not an object of profit. Its defense is a permanent commitment to the memory and cultural sovereignty of Mexico.”
It should be noted that Artemis Fine Arts does not have a shining track record when it comes to smuggling or repatriation. It has faced multiple allegations in the past, notably twice since 2024, of auctioning artifacts suspected to have been acquired via smuggling or theft. The gallery refused to cancel the auction or repatriate the artifacts in question in any of these cases. In fact, the Dodges have been vocally against such allegations. In 2024, Terese Dodge had controversially stated: “Mexico wants everything back. To what end? Because it’s theirs? When it was made, there was no Mexico.”
Update: The auction went ahead as planned on Friday. However, it would seem that all the Mexican artifacts, alleged to be stolen, were removed from the block prior to the auction as all are marked “passed” on the gallery’s website.
