HOUSTON — The FBI’s Houston office announced that the FBI has returned a stolen 16th-century manuscript signed by Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés to the Mexican government.
According to the agency, the document includes logistical and planning details related to Cortés’ 1527 expedition—an important journey that contributed to the establishment of New Spain.
FBI Special Agent Jessica Dittmer, part of the bureau’s Art Crime Team, worked alongside NYPD Detective Rigel Zeledon to recover the artifact. The manuscript was originally held by Mexico’s national archives, el Archivo General de la Nación, and authorities believe it went missing sometime between the 1980s and 1990s. The theft was discovered in 1993 during a routine inventory, when 15 pages were found missing from a Cortés collection…