Andina

Peru's Foreign Affairs Min receives 16th-century manuscript recovered by U.S. FBI

Photo: ANDINA/Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Peru

Photo: ANDINA/Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Peru

19:16 | Washington, D.C. (U.S.), Mar. 14.

Peruvian Foreign Affairs Minister Javier Gonzalez-Olaechea and U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken presided over the ceremony for the return of a manuscript recovered by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in December 2023.

The document, dated June 28, 1599, is a contract that created the very first theater troupe in the Americas, in Lima, Peru.

The manuscript was removed from the Peruvian national archives and later, in the 1920s, was acquired and stored in the Rosenbach collection for almost a century. The Rosenbach Museum & Library in Philadelphia decided to voluntarily return the document to the Peruvian State.

"We just had a wonderful moment where it was a great honor for the United States to be able to return to Peru some extraordinary documents dating to the 16th century that document the very first theater troupe in the Americas – quite remarkable," the U.S. Secretary of State said in a significant gesture on Thursday.

"And thanks to very good work between our governments, we were able to return these documents to make sure that the extraordinary cultural heritage of Peru is further reinforced," he added.

For his part, Minister Gonzalez-Olaechea reaffirmed Peru's commitment to continue strengthening the collaborative work with the United States to combat the illegal trafficking of cultural heritage.

He also thanked the U.S. Department of State, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the U.S. Department of Justice for the efforts that went into returning the valuable manuscript to Peru.

Thus, the Government of Peru believes that this significant act of collaboration paves the way for more gestures of cooperation by museums in the United States, as a sign of high appreciation and consideration for the culture and friendship between both peoples.

(END) NDP/NGB/JCR/RMB

Published: 3/14/2024