In the capital's National Museum of Anthropology and History in Mexico City, you have the opportunity to see a luxurious headdress made of green feathers. According to legend, it belonged to the last ruler of the Aztecs, Montezuma II Chocoyfromtsin (1466-1520) and was presented to Hernan Cortez, in whom Montezuma first saw a divine appearance.
Montezuma's plume, or rather, the headdress, which was called quetzalapanecaifroml, — a true work of art by Aztec masters. Created by the Amantecs, craftsmen who worked with feathers, it is 116 cm high and 175 cm in diameter. The middle part of the plume is made of blue kfrominga feathers and decorated with gold elements of various shapes with precious stones. To the outside are flamingo feathers with inserts of quetzal feathers, and then brown cuckoo feathers decorated with golden plaques. The plume is framed by the tail feathers of a quetzal. Some of the feathers reach a length of 55 cm, and the total number of quetzal feathers is — 222. Feathers are fixed on a golden base.
Besides the plume itself, everything connected with its affiliation and history — complete legends that have no documentary sources.
Let's start with the fact that Montezuma's plume is in the Anthropological Museum in Mexico City — a copy, and the original is kept in Austria, in the World Museum of Vienna. The plume was first discovered in the Austrian Ambras either in 1575 or 1699. At first they thought it was a fan or cape. As a result, the plume was given a flat shape, which is why it lost its flexibility. It was decided that this was a headdress. However, the plume may not have been the ruler’s crown, but only an object used for religious purposes. The headdresses of the Aztec rulers (tlatoani), which served as attributes of their power, had a different appearance and were not so large.
The story of Montezuma's plume is also based on speculation. The plume could have been just one of many that Montezuma owned. The Aztec ruler was the owner of a large number of valuable things and wore a variety of jewelry, most of which have not yet been found and, perhaps, lost forever. Montezuma perceived the arrival of the conquistadors led by Cortez as a divine sign. Either because of this idea, or to appease the conquerors, Montezuma gave gifts to Cortes, which consisted of 159 items. One of these gifts could have been a plume. The items were rewritten and sent to Spain.
Probably, the ship that transported Montezuma's gifts to Europe was robbed by pirates. In Europe, the plume changed several owners before it was discovered by naturalist Ferdinand von Hochstetter in 1878 in one of the shops of the Austrian Ambras. Hochstetter was the first to try to restore the plume and probably fixed it in a plane. At the beginning of the 19th century, the plume ended up in the Vienna Museum of Ethnography and was placed in the exhibition of objects related to the cult of the wind god Quetzalcoatl — Ehecatla.
At the end of the 19th century, plumes interested European researchers. The idea that it was used as a headdress by the Aztec ruler Montezuma was put forward by American anthropologist Celia Nuttall.
At the moment, the original plume, stored in Vienna, is in a very worn state; its approximate price, according to Austrian experts, is about 50 million dollars.
The Mexican government has repeatedly tried to return Montezuma's plume to Mexico. There was even an offer to exchange it for the carriage of Emperor Maximoran I, which is now housed in the National Anthropological Museum in Mexico City. However, the plume remained in Austria. After a thorough examination, consultants from both countries came to the conclusion that its transportation was impossible: shaking and vibration would lead to irreversible destruction of the historical relic.
In Mexico itself, the attitude towards Montezuma's plume is ambiguous. At the beginning of the twentieth century, during the Mexican Revolution, the plume began to be considered a national relic and a source of national pride and identity. But many skeptics still argue that the plume has nothing to do with Montezuma, and therefore, it should be considered as an object of skillful work by Aztec craftsmen, but not as a symbol of state power.