According to the South American Overseas Chinese Daily Network, in response to the flow of Latin American cultural relics into German auction houses and being publicly auctioned, recently, 7 countries belonging to cultural relics, including Guatemala, jointly held a press conference to demand that Germany stop the auction and return the cultural relics to its country.
According to reports, on the 21st of this month, a German auction house launched an auction with the theme of "pre-Columbian art", publicly auctioning a set of 324 cultural relics belonging to Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama, Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Colombia. Recently, seven countries except Bolivia held a joint press conference through their ambassadors to Germany, demanding that Germany stop the auction and return the cultural relics to their countries.
At the same time, the Ministry of Culture and Sports of Guatemala (MCD) issued a statement condemning Germany's auction of Latin American cultural relics and accusing the auction house of having auctioned Guatemalan cultural relics several times, and so far, the auction house has sold 6 Guatemalan cultural relics, and Guatemala has repeatedly negotiated with Germany on this matter between 2012 and 2016.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Guatemala also issued a statement expressing its firm and unequivocal opposition to the commercialization of its cultural heritage abroad, and stressed that the Guatemalan government has initiated relevant legal procedures to demand the return of Guatemalan cultural relics auctioned by the German side.
For international organizations, the Association of Latin American and Caribbean States (Grulac) issued a proclamation demanding that Germany voluntarily return cultural relics.
Source: China News Network