United States returns ‘Earth Monster’ Olmec sculpture to Mexico

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico says a huge 2,500-year-old Olmec stone sculpture has been returned by the United States. The six-foot-tall “Monster of the Earth” sculpture appears to represent the gaping maw of a monster that is big enough to swallow people, and may represent a symbolic entrance to the underworld. Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard says the sculpture was handed over at the Mexican consulate in Denver, Colorado, on Friday. Experts believe the sculpture was taken clandestinely from a ruin site south of Mexico City in the 1960s.