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The theft of religious art in Mexico affects around 26 churches every week and is worsened because of the lack of official inventories , says Luis López Morton.
“The problem is they don't have complete inventories; when you have them, you can compare them,” said López Morton , the director of the auction house .
Numbers from the Mexican Episcopate and Mexico City's Archdioceses show that there are 19,000 religious temples, many contain religious art , a name used to refer to artwork made with religious cult purposes.
The theft of sacred art has increased 600% during this century and on average, 26 Mexican churches are robbed each week.
Between 2001 and 2010, over 400 pieces of religious art from the colonial period were stolen, which can be sold from USD $35,000 and up to USD $150,000.
The state of Puebla is the state that registers the most cases, followed by T laxcala, State of Mexico, Mexico City, San Luis Potosí, Hidalgo, Guanajuato, Zacatecas, Morelos , and Jalisco .
The pieces that are stolen the most are paintings, sculptures, crowns, shrines, crucifixes, chandeliers, censers, bells, chalices, although the most sought-after is, curiously, Our Lady of Guadalupe .
Our Lady of Guadalupe
is one of the most painted figures during the 18th and 19th century and it's the most valuable image among the stolen art.
The main purchasers are private galleries , collectors , and antiquarians in Mexico and the U.S.
The Casa Morton was involved in a scuffle with Mexican prosecutors , after questioning the origin of some pieces of religious art they had under consignment through ArtLoss , the biggest stolen art database in the world.
The ArtLoss database showed the sculptures of Saint Anna and Saint Joachim . The Interpol notified the Mexican authorities so they would confiscate the pieces.
These pieces of religious art from the 18th century were stolen from a church in Puebla in 2001. The criminals also stole more pieces from the 19th century and a painting of Saint Francis of Assisi , which dated back to the 18th century.
“We're in touch with ArtLoss and they check all the catalogs and they tell us when a piece is fake,” said López Morton .
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