AUSTRIA'S TREASURE, MEXICO'S HERITAGE

Officials want 'Moctezuma's headdress' returned from Vienna. But is it too fragile?

- Patrick J. McDonnell

On their 30th wedding anniversary, the couple from Mexico were determined to fulfill a long-deferred aspiration: a visit to this storied former Hapsburg capital. And they didn’t come just to catch an opera and savor the Sachertorte.

“We always wanted to see el penacho de Moctezuma,” said Gema Vargas, referring to the feathered headdress widely attributed to the legendary Aztec emperor. “It’s much more beautiful than we imagined.”

But, she added: “It should be in Mexico.”

A DANCER performs an offering during an Aztec ceremony, top, at the main square in Mexico City, where Moctezuma once ruled. Above, a reproduction of a rack of skulls is displayed at the Templo Mayor Museum.

For more than a century, Mexican officials have called the penacho a cultural touchstone and sought its return from Austria — despite no evidence that Moctezuma actually wore it. Austrian officials insist the brittle object is too delicate to move from its perch in Vienna’s renowned Weltmuseum.

Despite its lore and beauty, the penacho suffers from a case of contested identity: In Austria, it is a treasured possession of the state. In Mexico, it remains a marker of national identity.

“One has to think of el penacho in two different ways," said Miruna Achim, professor at the Autonomous Metropolitan.

University in Mexico City.

"It's a historical artifact. But it's also a symbol - a highly politicized symbol." From its display case in the museum's "Stories from Mesoamerica" hall, the iridescent plumage shimmers like a rainbow encased in glass, a tropical interloper to these northern climes.

The museum gift shop does a brisk sale in penachothemed books, postcards, pillboxes, scarves and the like.