The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday handed over to the Mexican government a 500-year-old manuscript page signed by Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés. The repatriation ceremony was announced by the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City and caps a months-long investigation led by the FBI’s Art Crime Team. The single-page document, dated 20 February 1527, details payments in gold for expedition supplies during the early years of New Spain. Archivists at Mexico’s National Archives discovered in 1993 that 15 pages from the Cortés collection were missing; numbering on the recovered page indicates it was likely removed sometime between 1985 and 1993. U.S. authorities located the page in the United States after Mexico formally requested assistance last year. The FBI worked with the New York Police Department, the U.S. Department of Justice and Mexican officials to secure the artifact. Investigators said no criminal charges will be filed because the page changed hands several times over the past three decades. This marks the second Cortés manuscript returned to Mexico, following the 2023 recovery of an April 1527 letter. The hand-back underscores Mexico’s broader campaign to reclaim cultural property, as the United States—home to one of the world’s largest antiquities markets—steps up cooperation to curb illicit trade in historical artifacts.