A few days ago, in an unidentified house in zone 10 or 15 of the capital, the Police found several pieces of a work by the best Guatemalan painter of the 17th century, Tomás de Merlo —son, brother and father of painters—, stolen in the 2014 of the church of Calvary of Antigua Guatemala. It joins similar facts from other works, from that period, almost all of them religious, as well as the stelae and other manifestations of the Mayan culture in Petén. If they are transferred to another place, without destroying them, they are historical crimes, and they are crimes, both historical, when they are sawn, sniped, and broken into pieces. Because of this, the names of those who own them must be made public, as the excuse of having found and/or bought them from someone is unacceptable.
Whoever is in charge of caring for this art, consisting of paintings, sculptures, images, etc., and belongs to a religious group or works in national museums, needs to be fully aware of and responsible for this historical value, because it is unrepeatable. Of the arts, the work of painters and sculptors are in the most danger, because they are valued inside and outside Guatemala by private collectors and museums. There are specialized gangs and many times it is precisely connoisseurs dedicated to profiting from world history. The pressure to be returned by museums, especially in Europe and the United States, is growing more and more, although it is a very difficult fight for being famous and powerful institutions throughout the world.
The subject of the value of art in comparison with that of human life, has been dealt with in literature and cinema. A 1964 film, with Burt Lancaster and Jeanne Moreau, was my first experience on this subject. A train of French works of art is heading to Berlin, and said actor hesitates to send his men to die to stop him and save the works. She is a curator of the museum from where they have been stolen. And an impressive phrase said: “the works will last hundreds of years, but the members of the resistance can live a couple of days.” Topkapi (also from 1964) narrated the attempted robbery by a gang of sophisticated art thieves of a historic dagger with precious stones kept in an Istanbul museum. I recommend them for their high quality.
Among the worst motivations to destroy history in this way is religious fanaticism. In 2001, to “combat idolatry” the Taliban destroyed two giant Buddhas 55 meters high and 1,500 years old, a World Heritage Site. The Spanish conquerors destroyed codices and idols, with a 16th century mentality. War also destroys history: from 1939 to 1945, bombs dropped by planes destroyed Gothic cathedrals. One terrible case was the targeted Allied air raid in 1944 on the 6th-century Benedictine monastery of Monte Casino, where the Germans had taken refuge. Later, the Pyrrhic victory was declared and the monastery rebuilt, no longer of historical value.
Within Christianity there are incredible cases. Due to some confusion in the terms venerate and adore, some non-Catholic groups classify the images of Christ, the Virgin Mary and the saints as idols (deities, that is, divine beings or gods). In some cases, the change of religion entails the historical crime of destroying images of saints, who are not gods. There is a case of an obscure ex-president whose change made him destroy, without even selling, the family saints. I mention these examples to verify how through so many human actions crimes and crimes against History can be committed, and why those who commit them deserve punishment even if they do not necessarily mean the loss of a human life.
