Debate rages about $5.3m Mayan figure's age

Mexico says the statue is a mishmash of styles. Photo / AP

The Mexican Government says a Mayan-style statue auctioned for a record US$4 million ($5.3 million) this week is a fake.

Auctioneers insisted it was genuine and claimed that Mexico wants to quash legal sales of pre-Hispanic artefacts..

The stakes in the dispute are high - and not just because of the cash laid down by the as-yet unidentified buyer. A debate has been renewed about whether there is a place, if any, for sales of ancient artefacts.

The Paris-based Binoche Et Giquello auction house that sold the stucco figure of a warrior said the attack on its authenticity is an attempt by Mexican officials to shake confidence in the auction market for pre-Hispanic artefacts.

"They want to ruin the market for pre-Hispanic art, that is my opinion," said auctioneer Alexandre Giquello.

Damaging the legal market could push such pieces on to the unregulated black market, he said. Auction houses are subject to public scrutiny, provenance and ownership challenges, while "on the black market, you have no control at all".

He said the 1.56m statue has been publicly written about since 1976. The piece has been examined by experts, exhibited and discussed in professional forums and publications. The auction house dated the figure to between AD550 and 950.

Mexico's ministry in charge of archaeology disputed that.

"It is a recently manufactured piece that does not belong to any of Mexico's pre-Hispanic cultures," the National Institute of Anthropology and History said.

The institute's experts described the fierce-looking warrior as a sort of "freestyle" mishmash of elements that never existed in one single culture, like lace-up sandals of a kind the Mayans didn't use. They said the knees-bent position didn't match Maya styles, though Giquello said the figure had been seated on a throne that was now missing.

The Mexican agency acknowledged it judged the statue's authenticity based solely on photos, a practice that experts say is questionable.

Anthropologist Dr Richard Leventhal said he did not have much sympathy for the mystery buyer. He said such purchases legitimise the black market by teaching tomb robbers and middlemen they can make a buck with artefacts. When dug up by looters such artefacts become divorced from the valuable information that comes with their context.

- AP