Small Nashville museum wants you to know why it is returning artifacts to Mexico

Associated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A small museum in Nashville is returning 255 pre-Columbian artifacts to Mexico. But first, it wants you to know why. The exhibit “Repatriation and Its Impact” explains how the pieces were donated to the Parthenon in the 1960s and 70s as a tax deduction. Most of the artifacts were sitting in storage. A 2014 review determined they were “outside the Parthenon’s mission.” But it wasn’t until 2022, that someone began working to have them studied and displayed with proper context. Still, the exhibit has only vague descriptions, which shows how little the museum knows about them. When the exhibit closes, they will be transferred to the National Institute of Anthropology and History in Mexico City.