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A stolen 16th century manuscript is returned to Paraguay, via the Upper West Side
By
Arun Venugopal
Published Apr 20, 2025
Modified Apr 24, 2025
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Manhattan District Attorney's Office
By
Arun Venugopal
Published Apr 20, 2025
Modified Apr 24, 2025
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A 16th century manuscript that was stolen from Paraguay’s National Archives more than a decade ago before making its way to a rare book dealer on the Upper West Side is being repatriated to Paraguay, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said.
The 13-page manuscript, valued at nearly $20,000, had been housed in the National Archive of Paraguay since 1870 before it went missing, Bragg said in a statement. A tip from the consul general of Paraguay in New York alerted the DA’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit to the manuscript's location in January.
The manuscript is from 1598 and was signed by the colonial governor, Hernando Arias de Saavedra. Bragg's office said the pages “detailed the laws governing the daily life of the Indigenous population" in the Spanish colony. The DA's office also said the manuscript is considered a crucial precursor to the 1603 ban of the "punitive encomienda system" a feudal type of system where indigenous people were forced to perform unpaid labor for colonists.
Bragg said he was “thrilled” to see the item returned “to the people of Paraguay.”
In a statement, Paraguay's Consul General in New York Fabiola Torres Figueredo said “the return of this historical manuscript is a meaningful gesture of friendship and respect between our nations ... It symbolizes our shared commitment to the preservation of cultural heritage and historical memory."
Bragg’s office said after the theft more than a decade ago, the manuscript “next surfaced” in 2013 at a Manhattan auction house, where it was sold to a local rare book dealer.
The DA’s office would not identify the auction house or dealer, but as late as Friday the item was still listed for sale online at $18,500 on the website of Martayan Lan Inc., a dealer trading in rare books and antique maps.
“Some wormholes and fraying to the margins, but perfectly legible,” reads the listing.
Reached by phone, Seyla Martayan said it was “a shock” to be contacted by the DA’s office earlier this year.
“No dealer wants to work with stolen material,” said Seyla Martayan. She said she’s operated the business for 40 years, alongside her late husband Richard Lan. The business’s website says it “ranks among the leading dealers in rare books and manuscripts in the world.”
Seyla Martayan blamed Swann Auction Galleries, the Manhattan auction house where she said her company purchased the manuscript, saying it had not been transparent about the manuscript's provenance.
A call to Swann on Friday was not immediately returned, but a record of the Oct. 10, 2013 auction for the same manuscript remains on its website, listing the estimated price as $5,000 to $7,000 and the “hammer price” as $9,500.
“Important decree concerning the rights of Indians,” reads the listing, “Asunción, 12 December 1598.”
On its website Swann claims to be “the largest auctioneer of Works on Paper in the world, and New York's oldest specialty auction house.”
In a statement sent after this story published, Kelsie Jankowski, a spokesperson for the auction house, said the company was not able to reveal the identity of who had sold the manuscript to Martayan Lan, but that Swann had worked with Bragg’s office.
“We always cooperate with efforts of this kind and are delighted that the manuscript was returned to its rightful owners,” Jankowski said.
Bragg’s office said in the release that its Antiquities Trafficking Unit had recovered more than 6,000 antiquities since its creation, and had returned nearly 5,500 of them to 30 countries from which they’d originated.
Erin Thompson, a professor of art crime at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said “many historical manuscripts go missing from libraries and archives and then end up purchased by private collectors.”
“New York City is a center of the art market, whether for Picassos or manuscripts. You can buy anything you want in New York City auction houses and dealers,” she said.
Thompson said countries whose antiquities had been looted now have a higher chance of tracing an item's destination in the digital era.
“More things are being spotted and more publicity is being given to returns, so I think more and more people who are buying can no longer say, ‘Oh, I didn’t know this was a problem,’” she said. “So both dealers and collectors are increasingly responsible for making sure that what they’re buying is okay.”
Tagged
museum
Alvin Bragg
Race And Justice Unit
manhattan
Arun Venugopal
Arun Venugopal is a senior reporter for the WNYC and Gothamist Race & Justice Unit who focuses on issues of race and bias in our region. His reporting also tackles the topics of immigration, faith, and inequality. Arun serves as the regular fill-in host of the station's "U.S. of Anxiety" program. Arun was the creator and host of Micropolis, a series about race and identity. He is a contributor to NPR's Morning Edition and All Things Considered. He has appeared on PBS Newshour, On the Media and Studio 360, and has been published in The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal and Salon. He also frequently serves as an emcee and moderator of panel discussions on race, religion, and identity issues and has been a guest host of NPR's "Fresh Air." He lives with his family in Queens.
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