Katia Fach Gómez
International + Comparative Law
University of Zaragoza
The Parthenon Marbles, Moctezuma’s Headdress, and Other Hidden Stories of Our Museums
To whom do the Parthenon Marbles and the bust of Nefertiti belong?
Behind many of the works we admire when visiting the Louvre, the British Museum, or the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York lies an uncomfortable past. These are objects that disappeared from their places of origin, removed from temples, tombs, or palaces, and which continue to be claimed today.
For centuries, major museums assembled objects from every corner of the globe, convinced that they were preserving the heritage of humanity. Yet beneath this appearance of universality lies a history of conquest, looting, and appropriation that still casts its shadow over our cultural institutions.
“Abducted Art” (Planeta, 2026) traces the trajectories of six emblematic objects—from the Parthenon Marbles to Moctezuma’s feathered headdress, the Benin Bronzes, and the bust of Nefertiti—to explain, with rigor and clarity, how they came to be displayed in the exhibition halls they occupy today, and to open the debate on their restitution.
