Pre-Columbian artifacts back in the right hands

Shoppers strolling through the Snohomish Star Mall in the early 1990s might have bought more than they bargained for. Pre-Columbian artifacts -- priceless in their countries of origin -- were hidden amid fakes and reproductions at a consignment booth called Ancient Trade.

The items had been stolen from graves in Central and South America. Yesterday, in a ceremony at the Seattle Art Museum, U.S. Customs agents returned several hundred of the ancient treasures to government representatives of Mexico, Peru and Panama.


	Mexican archaeologist Pedro Francisco Sanchez-Nava examines a Miztec skull 500 to 700 years old. It and other pre-Columbian artifacts were among hundreds of looted items that were returned yesterday. Paul Joseph Brown / Seattle Post-Intelligencer Click for larger photo

All three countries plan to display the objects in museums open to the public.

U.S. Customs agent-in-charge Mark Selby called it the most important cultural-reparations case in several years and the only one in his memory to occur in Seattle. "Most of these cases take place along the border, in Texas or Miami," he said.

No one was willing to put a dollar value on the treasures.

"These objects are priceless," said Raul Garcia Arroyo, director general of the Mexican National Institute of Archaeology and History. "They have monetary value, but more important is their spiritual value. Stealing them is stealing a part of a country's soul. They connect past and present and belong to us all."

Arroyo resents the swashbuckling image grave robbers have in movies.

"The thief (in this case) isn't Indiana Jones," he continued. "There are plenty of people like him. When they remove objects from their original sites, the thieves make it hard to know the objects' history. That history is lost forever."

Wrapping up the case took nearly eight years, although the facts were pretty easy to establish, Selby said.

After a tip from an anonymous source in 1993, Selby investigated the businesses of Frank Joseph Stegmeier, both at his home and in the mall.

Operating undercover, Selby offered to buy a decorative human skull and conch shell from Stegmeier for $160,000. "After he accepted the money, I arrested him," said Selby, who admitted feeling good at the time.

His happiness was short-lived. After an indictment by a federal grand jury in Seattle, Stegmeier fled the United States to avoid prosecution. Four years later, Panamanian authorities found him living in their country under the alias of John Norling.

Stegmeier was finally convicted in 1999.

Among the most valuable objects recovered are an incised and painted human skull, at least 500 years old, and an incised and painted conch shell from roughly the same period, Mexican archaeologist Pedro Francisco Sanchez-Nava said. Both belonged to the Mixtecan culture. He helped the governments involved distinguish the real from the fake.

The collection ranges from small, painted pots to figurative sculptures and textiles used in funeral rites.

Some textiles were cut up and sold for minimal sums, such as several hundred dollars.

Gabriela Paz y Miño, a reporter from Ecuador, is spending five months at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on an Alfred Friendly Press Fellowship. She can be reached at 206-448-8220 or gabrielapazymino@seattlepi.com. P-I art critic Regina Hackett can be reached 206-448-8332 or reginahackett@seattlepi.com

Add P-I Local headlines to