Paris art sale goes ahead despite Mexico protest
(Artdaily.org)

A controversial sale of pre-Columbian art went ahead in Paris on Wednesday despite furious calls from Mexico for it to be halted. The Mexican government filed a formal complaint against the auction of 120 religious and cultural artefacts from several private collections, with UNESCO also urging auctioneers Millon to postpone the sale. But despite a last-minute appeal by Mexico`s ambassador for the French authorities to intervene, the auction went ahead, with a statue of an Aztec goddess selling for five times its estimate. The stone figure of Chalchiuhtlicue, the goddess of water and protector of births, went for 377,000 euros ($417,000). Sculpted from volcanic rock, it shows her kneeling and looking at the sky. Another kneeling figure of the Aztec mother goddess Coatlicue sold for 97,500 euros to bring the auction total to more than 1.2