Woman Buys Ancient Mayan Vase for $4 at Thrift Shop, Returns It to Mexico

A woman who bought a $4 vase at a Maryland thrift shop and then discovered years later tha it was a Mayan artifact dating back nearly 2,000 years returned the ancient treasure to Mexico.

Anna Lee Dozier told NPR that she thought she had found a reproduction of a Mayan vase five years ago on the clearance shelf of the 2A Thrift Store in Clinton, Maryland, and shelled out $4 to purchase it.

"It did look old to me, but not old-old, like 20 to 30 years old, maybe," Dozier, a human rights advocate with Christian Solidarity Worldwide, told NPR.

"I thought it would be just a nice little thing to take home and put on the shelf and to remind me of Mexico," she said.

While on a work trip this January, Dozier saw a display of Mayan vases at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. She noticed the similarity between the artifacts on display and the vase she had at home.

"I still was dubious that it was real, but just thought it looked enough like that that I asked to speak to someone in the [museum] offices and just ask, if I had something of interest, what would be the process to authenticate that," Dozier said.

A museum official recommended that she contact the Mexican embassy.

After sending a photo of the vase and its dimensions, she heard from the museum that the ancient vessel was real and "we would like it back."

The vase dates back to between 200 and 800 AD, Mexico's ambassador to the US Esteban Moctezuma Barragan said in a posting on X.

"A valuable witness of our Maya history returns home ... thanks to the generosity of Anne Lee Dozier," he wrote. "This historic gem will be reintegrated within the collection of [Mexico's National Museum of Anthropology and History] to preserve our rich cultural heritage."

Dozier said she was "thrilled" to play a part in returning the vase to Mexico.

"I would like it to go back to its rightful place and to where it belongs, but I also want it out of my home because I have three little boys and ... I was petrified that after 2,000 years I would be the one to wreck it," she told WUSA 9.

Tags

Mexico, Mayan, Museum