MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Stolen 16th-century manuscript returned to Paraguayan authorities

The Manuscript contains a compendium of the laws that governed the daily life of the indigenous peoples during colonial times

The US justice system returned the so-called “Hernandarias Manuscript,” a 16th-century document penned in 1598 by Hernando Arias de Saavedra, the first Creole governor in the Americas.

The 13-page item detailing laws governing indigenous life under Spanish colonial rule and linked to the 1603 abolition of the encomienda system was valued at US$ 20,000. It had been stolen from Paraguay's National Archives and put up for auction in New York in 2013.

It was recovered this month by the Manhattan Supreme Court’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit after a tip from Paraguayan consular authorities.

This marks the first repatriation of a stolen item to Paraguay by the unit, which has recovered over 6,000 antiquities globally.

The document, currently held at the Paraguayan consulate in New York, awaits return, symbolizing a step in preserving Paraguay’s cultural heritage.

”The return of this historic manuscript (...) symbolizes our shared commitment to the preservation of cultural heritage and historical memory,“ said Paraguay's consul general in New York, Fabiola Torres Figueredo, in a statement.

Hernandarias played a leading role in the abolition in 1603 of the punitive encomienda system, a form of slavery that allowed Spanish colonists to exact tribute and forced labor from indigenous peoples.

”I am delighted that, for the first time, we have been able to return a stolen object to the people of Paraguay,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg highlighted.

Paraguay's National Secretariat of Culture (SNC) said in a statement that “the New York Prosecutor's Office initiated a case and requested the participation of the director of the National Archive, Vicente Arrúa. Historian Dr. Guillaume Candela, a specialist in the Paraguayan 19th century, voluntarily joined this effort and prepared a scientific report that contributed to confirming the authenticity and origin of the material.”