While the discussions about returning the Aztec ruler Moctezuma’s crown to Mexico were continuing, the Ethnographic Museum of Vienna was declared that it wouldn’t be possible to return the artifact within the next 10 years, on the grounds that it could be destroyed during transportation. After the Museum’s decision, 2 Mexican activists named Sebastian Arrechedera and Yosu Arangüena came to the museum disguised as tourists, and changed the recordings of the audio guides presented to introduce the artifacts to the visitors.
The activists stated that it was easier to make changes in the audio recordings than they thought. Activists told that they entered the museum disguised as tourists, after receiving the audio guides they went to the toilet and replaced them with guides with their own voice recordings. In an interview, the activists stated that the change in the audio guides has not yet been noticed by the museum officials.
The voice of the Xoconoschtletl Gomora, another activist who has fought for the return of Moctezuma’s crown to Mexico for 40 years, that explaining the crown is not an ordinary headdress, but has great spiritual value as a royal crown, and the crown had to be returned to where it belonged, as it was part of the heritage of the Mexican people that had been plundered by the Europeans, was in the museum’s new audio guides’ recording.