


































The artworld(s) of the Mesoamerican antiquities market 

Review by Irene Martí Gil.

CARA G. TREMAIN and DONNA YATES, eds, 2019, The Market for Mesoamerica. 

Reflections on the sale of Pre-Columbian antiquities, Gainesville: University Press of 

Florida, xvi + 213 pp., ISBN 9780813056449

Keywords: antiquities, trafficking, Mesoamerica, market, law.

Cara  Tremain  and  Donna  Yates’s  edited  volume  brings  antiquities  trafficking  in

Mesoamerica back to the scholarly limelight. This almost forgotten phenomenon, originally

brought to the attention of scholars by Coggins (1969), and more exhaustively reviewed at

the  1990  Dumbarton  Oaks  symposium (Boone  1993),  has  gone  virtually  unnoticed  in

academia despite the loss of cultural heritage in Mexico and Central America it has caused,

and persists today. The selection of papers presented here explore the legal, sociological,

archaeological,  and  museological  aspects  of  the  antiquities  market  in  Mesoamerican

artifacts. The theoretical foundations of the book rest on Actor-Network Theory and the

Theory  of  Entanglement,  which  are  broadly  described  in  the  introductory  chapter  by

Rosemary Joyce. Joyce defines the market in Mesoamerican antiquities as “art world(s),” or

a complex network of mutually-dependent, and thus equally responsible, actors that once

created and now perpetuate the traffic in antiquities. The main actors participating in the

Mesoamerican art market include looters, local authorities, middlemen, dealers, collectors,

museums, as well as scholars. The actants, although implicitly identified as such, comprise

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the evolving taste in the arts, the choices of scholarly research, and the museum’s interest in

exhibiting  the  Mayan  material  culture.  These  actants  are  responsible  for  building  the

commercial and non-commercial value in Mesoamerican antiquities. 

Cristina Luke’s chapter excels in bringing the “artworld” network to light. She offers a

historical overview of the connection between elite privilege, archaeological practice in the

early  twentieth  century,  and  the  socially  accepted  looting  performed  by  American

archaeologists  in  Honduras.  The  author  reveals  how  American  archaeologists  used

Cuyamel Fruit and United Fruit corporative infrastructure, as well as top-executives and

diplomats’ political  power  and  social  influence,  to  fill  up  the  most  renowned  U.S.

museums. Thus, Luke demonstrates and expands on Joyce’s perception that archaeology

plays a fundamental role in the antiquities market, not only as scholars have assisted in

increasing  the  perceived  value  of  Mesoamerican  artifacts,  but  as  they  have  actively

participated in the trade of antiquities (often masquerading behind the “rescue argument”

and the “broadening accessibility” façade). 

Sofia Paredes Maury, Guido Krempel, and James Doyle look at the history of looting in,

and looted objects from, Guatemala by focusing on a “source-country” perspective. Paredes

Maury and Krempel’s chapter studies the extent of antiquities looting in the country by

examining the chronological  and spatial  incidence of  looting,  the  legal  and managerial

strategies  to  halt  heritage  trafficking in  the  country,  and the  significance  of  recovering

artifacts  that  are  privately  held,  both  in  Guatemala  and  abroad.  Paradoxically,  Doyle

expresses  in  his  chapter  the  difficulties  of  repatriating  archaeological  masterpieces  to

Guatemala due to the lack of resources and support, financial and otherwise. He chronicles

the “odyssey” of Piedras Negras’ Stela 5, which had been exhibited in the Metropolitan

Museum of Art via Rockefeller’s collection, to exemplify the challenges archaeologists, but

also  collectors,  encounter  when  attempting  to  reunite  dismembered  pieces  and

disassembled caches, or to return illicitly exported artifacts. 

Doyle’s chapter serves to bridge the gap between the on-the-field looting and the journey

looted  artifacts  embark  on  once  they  enter  the  “market-countries”  network,  the  theme

connecting  Berger’s,  Sellen’s,  and  Tremain’s  chapters.  Martin  Berger  reconstructs  the

object-biography  of  a  group  of  Post-Classic  turquoise  mosaic  artifacts,  today  scattered

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worldwide but purportedly originating from two close sites in Mexico. By studying their

available  provenance  and  post-depositional  life,  the  author  advocates  for  the  scientific

analysis of artifacts that lack a secure provenience in order to avoid a “double-loss” -the

privation of the artifact’s contextual data and the information it holds in itself. Although this

is a widely unpopular approach in academia, various authors in this volume support this

practice (Joyce, p.13; Paredes Maury and Guido Krempel, p.78; Tremain, p.184), making it

one of the compelling arguments throughout the book. 

Adam Sellen also reacts to the dispersion of looted antiquities around the globe.  In his

endeavor  to  build  an  online  catalog  of  Zapotec  urns,  the  author  narrates  the  multiple

obstacles to access the archaeological material that has been disseminated through trade,

and the moral dilemma of having his prolific database misused. Despite the goal of creating

the Zapotec catalog to facilitate scientific research, dealers and forgers have found in it a

reliable source of information to give looted objects academic legitimacy. The problems of

legitimacy, provenance, and provenience in the antiquities marketed by the most eminent

auction houses are the core subject in Cara Tremain’s chapter. She tracks the distribution of

Mayan antiquities at Sotheby’s over a period of fifty-five years, by examining the existent

auction catalogs and sales databases. She proves that the inherent opacity and well-guarded

anonymity in the antiquities market allow the ongoing penetration of illegal artifacts, as

well as forgeries, for sale. On that note, Nancy Kelker claims that the presence of fakes in

the art and antiquities market is ubiquitous. The production of forgeries dates as far back as

appropriation  of  cultural  artifacts:  both  phenomena  originated  in  response  to  the  high

demand in the art and antiquities market. In this chapter, Kelker argues that developing and

applying measures (forensic testing, expert evaluation) to identify forgeries before they get

into the market is the only way to prevent them from contaminating scholarship. 

Allison Davis and Donna Yates touch upon the law regulating the flow of Maya antiquities

into  the  U.S in  their  chapters.  Davis  discusses the  heritage-related bilateral  agreements

between the U.S. and all Mesoamerican countries, under the Property Implementation Act

(CIPA). The value of these agreements not only rests in their primary objective, which is

restricting the importation of stolen and looted materials into the U.S., thus reducing the

incentive to loot in the first place; but the collaborative binational relationships concomitant

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to the ratification. The ongoing professional and diplomatic interaction fosters dynamics of

cooperation  and mutual  support,  along  with  the  establishment  of  concrete  measures  to

protect the cultural heritage. However, Yates argues that the enforced heritage policies do

not  produce the  expected  effects  in  preventing  looting  and trafficking because  of  their

country-specific approach. Since the ancient Maya area does not correspond to the current

political division of Mexico and Central America, the difficulties in ascribing the country of

origin of the artifacts being traded hinders the enactment of country-to-country bilateral

agreements. Instead, heritage laws require an object-specific model, similar to the policies

restricting  the  traffic  in  endangered  species.  Hence,  banning  U.S.  importation  of  all

undocumented  Mesoamerican  artifacts  may be  a  more  effective  avenue to  halter  illicit

trade, and consequently, reduce archaeological looting. 

In conclusion, this book is designed to stir scholarly interest in the illicit trade of Mayan

artifacts. While presenting a well-documented, historical overview of the looting practice in

Mesoamerica,  the  book’s  fresh  insights  break  new  paths  of  research  in  archaeological

looting, the antiquities trade, and national and international heritage law. Addressing the

antiquities  market  as  a  self-contained  artworld  might  give  scholars  the  key  to  fully

understand its mechanisms, and to confront it successfully once and for all. 

Works Cited:

Boone, E.H., ed. (1993). Collecting the Pre-Columbian Past. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton 

Oaks Research Library Collection.

Coggins, C.C. (1969). Illicit Traffic of Pre-Columbian Antiquities. Art Journal 29 (1): 94, 

96, 98, 114.

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Irene Martí Gil is a Ph.D. candidate in the department of Geography and Anthropology at 

Louisiana State University. Her field of research is focused on the archaeological looting 

and the antiquities market from an interdisciplinary (legal, archaeological, ethnographic, 

and linguistic) perspective. At present, she studies the cultural heritage laws enforced in 

Guatemala and Belize, with the objective of expanding the research scope throughout the 

Maya area in the near future.

"The artworld(s) of  the Mesoamerican antiquities market"  critically  reviews the edited volume "The Market for

Mesoamerica.  Reflections  on the  sale  of  Pre-Columbian antiquities",  by  Cara  Tremain  and  Donna  Yates  (eds.)

(2019). This review helps contextualizing the book within its theoretical framework (Actor-Network Theory, and

Theory of Entanglement) and clarifying the thematic interrelation of the chapters. The reorganization of the content

contributes to identify the actors (looters, local authorities, middlemen, dealers, collectors, museums, as well as

scholars)  and  the  actants  participating  in  the  mutually-dependent  network  of  the  market  for  Mesoamerican

antiquities.

© 2021 Irene Martí Gil

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