A rare 16th-century manuscript signed by Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés was officially returned to Mexico this week, nearly 500 years after it was written and decades after it vanished from the country’s national archives.
The historic document, dated February 20, 1527, was personally signed by Cortés six years after his conquest of the Aztec Empire. It had been missing from Mexico’s General Archive of the Nation since sometime between 1985 and 1993, when archivists discovered 15 pages gone while microfilming the collection.
Today, the FBI returned a stolen manuscript signed by Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés to the government of Mexico.
The repatriation of this priceless cultural artifact—which authorities believe was stolen in the 1980s or 1990s—was the result of close collaboration between… pic.twitter.com/OCuOIOqkUm
— FBI (@FBI) August 13, 2025
“This is an original manuscript page that was actually signed by Hernán Cortés,” said Special Agent Jessica Dittmer of the FBI’s Art Crime Team. “Pieces like this are considered protected cultural property and represent valuable moments in Mexico’s history.”
Mexico reached out to the FBI in 2024 for assistance in locating one of the missing pages. After a year-long investigation, the FBI, in coordination with the New York City Police Department, U.S. Department of Justice, and Mexican authorities, tracked the document to the United States. The FBI did not disclose who possessed it, but confirmed no charges would be filed due to the manuscript’s complex provenance.
This marks the second Cortés-related document recovered and returned by the FBI to Mexico in recent years. In 2023, the agency returned another 16th-century letter attributed to the Spanish conquistador.
“These documents are essential to Mexico’s understanding of its own colonial history,” said Dittmer, “and returning them is part of preserving that cultural legacy.”
