Saint Francis of Assisi returned to his home in Teotihuacan. The Diocese of San Francisco Mazapa, located in the town of the same name, behind the Pyramid of the Sun in the state of Mexico, was able to recover an oil painting of the saint painted during the eighteenth century, which had been stolen 24 years ago. The painting arrived at Morton’s Mexican auction house in 2017, and after the registration process — contracts and catalog photographs — they uploaded the piece to the Art Loss Register, a global database in which a record of stolen or lost pieces is kept. “They gave us the whistle,” David Colipardo, Morton’s director of antiques and books, says by phone. “We stopped the auction process. Art Loss Register filed corresponding complaints with the public prosecutor’s office and we tried to contact the owner who offered us the piece, but we did not receive any response,” he says.
It took eight years to redo the work because that’s how long the process took, Colepardo explains. “We are not fully aware of what (the legal proceedings) were, which, fortunately, does not happen to us very often,” he adds. He says the investigation concluded last year and they were notified they could begin the logistics of sending the piece to the Archdiocese of San Francisco Mazzapa.
The Bishop of the Diocese of Teotihuacan, Guillermo Francisco Escobar Galicia, held a ceremony this weekend, accompanied by representatives of the auction house and 1,000 people from the community, to welcome the painting. “It is more than a work of art, it is a religious symbol that strengthens the faith of the community,” the bishop said during the event. They posted on Morton’s Instagram account some photos and expressed that this action is a reminder that stolen cultural heritage, which is often considered lost forever, can be returned to its rightful owner.
The height of the work is 180 cm and its width is 146 cm. According to the website 3Museos (a cultural venue in Monterrey, Nuevo León where the Museum of Mexican History, Palace and Northwest is located), the painting was created in 1728 by the Mexican Antonio de Torres, who had a huge output of images of the Virgin of Guadalupe and was considered one of the most prolific and popular painters of the time.
The saint is represented standing and wearing burlap – a kind of tunic made of wool – holding a skull in his right hand, and in his left a small cross with Jesus; Scars appear on the upper part of the palms and feet; At the bottom left is a dedication that reads: “In devotion to Don Gregorio Juan, present mayor on the three days of December, 1747.” According to the Cosmovisión Indígena Mazapa Facebook page, Gregorio Juan was mayor of the indigenous community.
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