While a lot of the art crime news recently has been about the (hopefully temporary) shuttering of New Scotland Yard's Art and Antiques unit in London as its officers are reassigned to work on the Grenfell Tower fire, Mexico seems to be moving in a more positive direction. 

The National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) and the National Institute of Fine Arts (INBA), organizational bodies responsible for safeguarding Mexico's cultural heritage, have held their first course on the protection of cultural heritage, training members of the Gendarmerie Division of the Federal Police on the national and international regulations against illicit traffic in cultural property, and the measures taken by Mexico to identify and recover looted objects. 

The objective of the pilot course was to establish stronger links between the Secretariats of Culture and the government, in order to ensure the legal care and protection of Mexico's cultural heritage  as stipulated in the country's federal law on Monuments and Archaeological, Artistic and Historical Areas.

The government also announced the formation of a database to be developed to help police determine which heritage assets are susceptible to damage or theft as well as a documentary repository for information about investigations.