The National Museum of Anthropology of Mexico, Princess of Asturias Award for Concord

The National Museum of Anthropology of Mexico has been granted the 2025 Princess of Asturias Award for Concord, as announced today in Oviedo by the Jury responsible for conferring said Award.

The Jury for this Award –convened by the Princess of Asturias Foundation– was chaired by Adrián Barbón Rodríguez, President of the Principality of Asturias, and composed of Esther Alcocer Koplowitz, Marchioness of Casa Peñalver, Ernesto Antolín Arribas, Maite Arango García-Urtiaga, Juan José Cano Ferrer, Alfredo Canteli Fernández, Juan Cofiño González, Sol Daurella Comadrán, Ignacio Eyriès García de Vinuesa, Ana I. Fernández Álvarez, Enrique Fernández Rodríguez, Luis Fernández-Vega Sanz, José Galíndez Zubiría, Ignacio Garralda Ruiz de Velasco, Jaime Gorbeña Yllera, Eduardo Hochschild Beeck, Alicia Koplowitz Romero de Juséu, Adolfo Menéndez Menéndez, Olvido Moraleda Linares, Carmen Moriyón Entrialgo, Mercedes Oblanca Rojo, José Oliu i Creus, María del Pino Calvo-Sotelo, Helena Revoredo de Gut, Francisco Riberas Mera, Matías Rodríguez Inciarte, Juan Sánchez-Calero Guilarte, Antonio Suárez Gutiérrez, Gonzalo Urquijo Fernández de Araoz, Maarten Wetselaar, Ignacio Ybarra Aznar and Pedro de Silva Cienfuegos-Jovellanos (as acting secretary).

This nomination was put forward by Emilio Lamo de Espinosa Michels de Champourcin, Chair of the Jury for the 2025 Princess of Asturias Award for Social Sciences. It was seconded by Eduardo Matos Moctezuma, 2022 Princess of Asturias Award for Social Sciences, and Juan Duarte Cuadrado, Spanish Ambassador to Mexico, among others.

Mexico’s National Museum of Anthropology (Spanish acronym, MNA) was founded in 1940 when part of the collection of the then National Museum of Archaeology, History and Ethnography was transferred to Chapultepec Castle. Its current name comes from the original institution in which only pre-Hispanic and ethnographic collections were exhibited. In 1960, the Mexican government approved the construction of a new museum, the current building, in Chapultepec Park. It opened in 1964 and captured international attention as a symbol of development, modernity and the avant-garde. Its mission is to research, conserve, exhibit and disseminate Mexico’s most important archaeological and ethnographic collections. It forms part of the network of museums of the country’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (Spanish acronym, INAH), which appointed Antonio Saborit as director in 2013. It has a Board of Trustees that supports its activities, particularly restoration and conservation projects, by raising funds through private donors and national and international companies, memberships, the MNA Store and events. In 2024, the MNA reached its highest visitor figure, with more than three million people frequenting its facilities.

Conceived as a space for reflection on the indigenous heritage of the Mexican nation, the MNA is considered one of the most important museums in Latin America and a reference institution worldwide for the study of humanity due to its commitment to the preservation, research and dissemination of cultural heritage. Furthermore, it maintains a close relationship with Spain and Spanish culture, as its halls also house objects from the period of viceregal rule that reflect the fusion of indigenous and Spanish cultures and the reciprocal relationship that historically existed between them, nourishing and enriching each other. The MNA is the country’s largest museum, with more than twenty halls occupying a surface area of forty-five thousand square metres, thirty thousand of which are dedicated to exhibitions. In its nearly six decades of existence, its collections comprise two hundred and fifty thousand pieces from all over Mexico, of which some eight thousand are on display. Since 1972, following the Federal Law on Archaeological, Artistic and Historical Monuments and Areas, its collections have been exclusively supplied with pieces from INAH archaeological projects and the repatriation of others from abroad.

Its archaeological collection dates back to the late 18th century with the urban improvement work carried out by the Count of Revillagigedo, Viceroy of New Spain. Among the dozens of Mexican sculptures found at that time, there were three important monoliths: the sculpture of the goddess Coatlicue, the Sun Stone, and the Stone of Tízoc. Among its emblematic pieces are Xochipilli or the Lord of the Flowers (from the Mexica culture), the tombstone, funerary offerings and jade mask from the tomb of the Mayan emperor Pakal and the mask of the Bat God (which belongs to Zapotec art). In July 2017, the MNA received for safekeeping and proper preservation the oldest directly dated and genetically intact prehistoric female skeleton in the Americas, known as “Naia”, unearthed in 2007 and estimated to be 13 000 years old. Some of the MNA’s exhibits have travelled the world on loan from the museum to other exhibitions in countries such as the Netherlands, Russia and Australia. In addition to the permanent exhibition, the museum organizes temporary exhibitions and also hosts both national and international travelling exhibitions. It boasts an educational communications department that designs and implements educational strategies for students, teachers and families.

The distinctions the MNA has received include the 1808 Medal from the Government of the Federal District and the United Mexico Foundation “For the Excellence of What is Ours” Award (2010). Designed by Pedro Ramírez, the museum building also houses the National Library of Anthropology and History, one of the most important in the country, and has been declared an Artistic Monument by the Mexican government.

As stated in the Statutes of the Foundation, the Princess of Asturias Awards are aimed at rewarding “the scientific, technical, cultural, social and humanitarian work carried out at an international level by individuals, institutions or groups of individuals or institutions”. In line with these principles, the Princess of Asturias Award for Concord is to be granted to “the work of defending and advancing human rights, as well as promoting and protecting peace, freedom, solidarity, world heritage and, in general, the progress of humanity”.

This year, a total of 32 candidatures comprising 23 nationalities were put forward for the Award for Concord.

This is the sixth of the eight Princess of Asturias Awards to be bestowed in what is now their forty-fifth year. Previously, the Princess of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities was granted to South Korean-born German philosopher and essayist Byung-Chul Han, the Princess of Asturias for Literature was conferred on Spanish writer Eduardo Mendoza, the Princess of Asturias Award for Social Sciences went to American sociologist and demographer Douglas Massey, the Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts was bestowed on Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide, and the Princess of Asturias Award for Sports was granted to American tennis player Serena Williams. The corresponding Awards for Technical and Scientific Research and International Cooperation shall be announced in the coming weeks.

As is customary, the presentation of the Princess of Asturias Awards will take place in October in a solemn ceremony presided over by Their Majesties The King and Queen of Spain, accompanied by Their Royal Highnesses Leonor, Princess of Asturias, and Infanta Sofía.

Each Princess of Asturias Award comprises a Joan Miró sculpture symbolizing the Award, a diploma, an insignia and a cash prize of fifty thousand euros.