"The headdress, which is crafted from more than 450 emerald feathers of the exotic quetzal bird and encrusted with precious jewels, is valued at $50 million."
Posted on 02/05/2006 9:37:39 AM PST by Willie Green
MEXICO CITY - For nearly 500 years, the jewel-encrusted, plumed headdress Mexicans revere as the "crown of Moctezuma" has been hidden away in the private collections of European royalty or behind bulletproof glass in a museum in Austria.
Now Mexico wants it back.
And Mexican officials said last month that they would formally petition Austria for the return of the relic, on display in the Ethnological Museum of Vienna. Many scholars think the headdress once belonged to the Aztec Emperor Moctezuma II, who was defeated by the Spanish in the 16th century.
"It is an archaeological piece of incalculable value for the history of our nation," Mexican Foreign Minister Ernesto Derbez told reporters. He said President Vicente Fox would personally ask for its return at a summit of Latin American and European leaders in Vienna in May if there is no progress before then.
But Austrian officials aren't interested in talking about it, at least for now.
"Any in-depth discussion of the headdress would certainly distract from the work of the Austrian presidency, running the risk that the headdress debate would overshadow the summit," an Austrian foreign ministry spokesman said in the Mexico daily Reforma last month.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
ping
"The headdress, which is crafted from more than 450 emerald feathers of the exotic quetzal bird and encrusted with precious jewels, is valued at $50 million."
Maybe Fox can use his friendship with Ahnold,who in turn can use his great relations with Austria./s
This needs to be returned to Mexico and placed in the national museum.
More demands from Mexico. Aside from exporting their citizens, demanding is what they do best.
Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph, Archduke of Austria, became Emperor of Mexico when Napoleon III sought to extend French imperial power.-http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/brady/gallery/04gal.html
I have gotten older and more practical. The "return our national treasure" malaise seems only to afflict those countries with the greatest poverty of achievement.
I say give them back their feathers and their rocks. The only thing that gives them any value at all is the interest displayed by cultures better than their own. To what end? Curiosity; plain and simple. Exactly as with a two-headed monkey in formaldehyde.
Why do they want these trinkets back? Since they feel so inferior in real achievement in the modern world, they need imaginary past (and totally useless) glories in which to "feel better' about themselves. A sort of inferiority therapy which, in the end, will cause all these "treasures" to rot, to fade away, exactly as their totally barbarous and useless cultures have.
Do I feel my life and modern civilization has gained a single useful thing from these societies? I would be pleased to debate anyone out there who feels that I have.
I certainly feel no such gratitude or obligation of any sort.
It appears Austria is about to find out about Moctezuma's revenge, or is it Montezuma's revenge?
Cortes, the subject of a Hapsburg monarch, recieved it as a gift from Montezuma.
He sent it back to Charles V as an example of what he had found in Mexico. From there it went to Charle's capital of Vienna (Charles was Holy Roman Emperor as well as King of Spain).
The Resplendent Quetzal is found in southern Mexico and in Central America. There are two subspecies, Pharomachrus mocinno mocinno and P. mocinno costaricensis, the Costa Rican Resplendent Quetzal. This quetzal plays an important role in Mesoamerican myth.
Resplendent Quetzals are striking birds, with a green body (showing iridescence from green-gold to blue-violet) and red breast. They possess green upper tail coverts that hide their tails and in breeding males are particularly splendid, being longer than the rest of the body. The wing coverts are also unusually long and give a fringed appearance.
(snip) The bird plays a prominent role in the region's Pre-Columbian mythology with the Aztecs and in modern legend. Ancient Mesoamerican kings and high priests wore headdresses of quetzal feathers, connecting them to one of their pronounced pagan gods, Quetzalcoatl. Quetzalcoatl was the creator god and god of wind, often depicted with grey hair. In several Mesoamerican languages, the term for quetzal can also mean precious, sacred or erected.
Until recently, it was thought that the Resplendent Quetzal could not be bred or held for any long time in captivity, and indeed it was noted for usually killing itself soon after being captured or caged. For this reason it is a traditional symbol of liberty. (However, a zoo in Mexico has kept this species since 1992, and in 2004 successful breeding in captivity was announced [Orellana, 2004].)
The Resplendent Quetzal is Guatemala's national bird, and an image of it is on the flag and the national seal of that country.
One Guatemalan legend claims that the quetzal used to sing beautifully before the Spanish conquest, but has been silent ever since—but will sing once again when the land is truly free.
- Wikipedia
You know that the ancient peoples of Mexico; Aztecs, Toltecs and others built grand cities and had very unique cultures.
Also, they apparently were quite savage. Human sacrifice was a significant part of their "religious" rituals.
The worship of Quetzalcoatl, the demon feathered serpent god, still has its ill affects on Mexico today even though it has been eclipsed by Roman Catholicism. Mexico is a strange mix of ancient culture and Spanish culture and has suffered for centuries.
I agree with your view, that they seek this headset because it re-connects them to the "glory" years of Aztec culture, thereby invigorating their national pride and somehow improving their self esteem.
But surely you know thatcolonial imperialism is responsible for all that ails the third world. (sarc)
Probably via a connection with Maximillian, the Hapsburg Napoleon III made Emperor of Mexico during the U.S Civil War, and who Benito Juarez executed after the French troops supporting him left Mexico[after seeing U.S Grant and Phil Sheridan mass a U.S Army accross the border].
Also, they apparently were quite savage. Human sacrifice was a significant part of their "religious" rituals.
As were many Europeans; However, the Europeans generally stopped that nonsense around 300 AD.
I agree with your view, that they seek this headset because it re-connects them to the "glory" years of Aztec culture, thereby invigorating their national pride and somehow improving their self esteem.
An exercise in self-delusion. I see no glory of any kind there... Just ignorance, brutality and death...
Whatever floats their boat.
I repeat, give them back their feathers and rocks!
The most ignorant among us react to small exposure to history exactly like the mindless arabs.
I know someone who went to Peru once, and as a result he displays a hatred of Spaniards that literally makes him physically ill...
The ignorant believe, as an article of faith, that their pathetic limited exposure to the world and history defines the entire universe. And, of course, gives them limitless license to pontificate.
I guess that makes them "Indian" givers.
Unlike the Myans, there are not even any half bread descendants of the Aztecs, their language, culture, rituals (thankfully), and all other aspects of Aztec existence are wiped from the face of the planet, save artifacts and old structures covered with foliage the past 400+ years. The Mexicans ancestors are the ones who murdered the Aztec civilization and raped and murdered many hundreds of other cultures into extinction or near extinction throughout North, Central, and South America. While the U.S. gets most of the liberal blame for wiping out Native American cultures, the British, French, and primarily the Spanish, did FAR FAR more damage to hundreds more Native American cultures in over 300 years of brutal conquest than America ever did in just the 1800s. But I digress.
Were there some Aztecs left, like there are many tribes which still exist in the U.S., or were it a Myan artifact and it was Myans who were wanting it back, I'd side with them all the way, but the modern inhabitants of Mexico have no more claim to this Aztec headdress than I do, or Mickey Mouse does. I wish I was leader of Austria so I could, off the record in private conversation, tell Vicente Fox and the other people wanting it back, to screw off, and just try to come and get it. Mexico. Whatever.
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