The Mexican government has called for the cancellation of a planned auction in which dozens of pre-Columbian art objects from Mexico are to be auctioned. Mexico’s Minister of Culture Alejandra Frausto informed the Munich auction house Gerhard Hirsch Nachhaben in a letter that 74 artifacts in the auction catalog had been identified as the property of the Mexican nation. The plan is to auction a total of 324 items, including figures, masks and vessels, also from Peru and Bolivia, on September 21. According to the Ministry of Culture, selling the pieces is a criminal offense under Mexican law and also contributes to smuggling and cross-border organized crime. Therefore, a complaint was filed with Mexico’s attorney general. The country’s cultural authorities have been campaigning for the protection of their own cultural heritage abroad for a number of years. They complained about the auctioning of art objects in auction houses as well as about international fashion brands, as they used classic textile patterns from indigenous peoples in their collections without their permission.