The National Museum of Anthropology (MNA) in Mexico City has won the 2025 Princess of Asturias Award for Concord, as the foundation recognized on Wednesday the museum’s contribution to preserving Mexico’s anthropological heritage. 

The Princess of Asturias Foundation, a prestigious Spanish non-profit private institution that promotes scientific, cultural and humanistic values, lauded the MNA as “heir to a long-standing tradition of defending and preserving an essential part of humanity’s anthropological heritage (that) simultaneously expresses the hallmarks of a great nation, signs of identity to which its people genuinely relate.”

The MNA opened in Chapultepec Park in 1964 with a design by Pedro Ramírez that was immediately viewed as a valuable example of modernity and the avant-garde. Its mission to research, conserve, exhibit and disseminate Mexico’s most important archaeological and ethnographic collections has made it one of the most important museums in Latin America and the most popular in Mexico City, attracting 3.7 million visitors in 2024. 

The Concord Award, announced on Wednesday, is “aimed at recognizing the work of defending and advancing human rights, as well as of promoting and protecting peace, freedom, solidarity, world heritage and, in general, the progress of humanity.”

The foundation has seven other categories of awards: the Arts, Literature, Social Sciences, Communication and Humanities, Technical and Scientific Research, International Cooperation and Sports. 

Winners of the Concord Award receive a prize fund of €50,000 (1 million pesos/US $56,900) and a sculpture created by the Catalan artist Joan Miró (1893-1983).

The MNA recently invested 45 million pesos (US $2.2 million) in the construction of five new rooms housing almost 6,000 archaeological, ethnographic and artisanal pieces from the pre-conquest section to an area showcasing Mexico’s contemporary cultural traditions, which opened in January. 

Previous MNA distinctions include the Government of the Federal District’s 1808 Medal and the United Mexico Foundation 2010 “For the Excellence of What is Ours” Award. 

The award comes a day after the museum had to close early on Tuesday, citing a shortage of security personnel. 

Other National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) institutions, such as the Templo Mayor Museum, the Museo del Carmen and the Museum of Interventions, were also closed to the public. 

The closure followed a Sunday announcement that the INAH changed its security from the Mexico City Auxiliary Police to a private company. 

With reports from Expansión and El Universal