The Guatemalan Minister of Culture, José Luis Chea, and the Vice-President of the Marq and Deputy for Culture, César Augusto Asencio, opened the Guatemala Maya conferences yesterday at the Marq. These talks dealt in depth with the complexity of the conservation of Mayan Heritage, and the struggle of Guatemalan public institutions to preserve and disseminate it in the face of looting and illegal trade in archaeological pieces, common practices in the past. The talks were attended by the international curator of the Maya exhibition, Nikolai Grube, the director of the National Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology of Guatemala, Daniel Aquino, the director of the La Ruta Maya Foundation, Sofía Paredes, and Neria Herrera, curator of the Neria Herrera Collection at the Juan Antonio Valdés Museum. The day ended with a round table discussion with the speakers, moderated by the technical director of the Marq, Manuel Olcina, and the museum's director of exhibitions and dissemination, Jorge Soler.
