Guatemala expat community roiled by relic-smuggling charges

ANTIGUA, Guatemala — Two Americans, one a photographer and the other a connoisseur of Mayan folk art, are facing charges of smuggling pre-Hispanic artifacts in Guatemala, Tuesday, in a case that has roiled the normally tranquil tourist-magnet town of Antigua.

Antigua, just outside Guatemala City, is a place where visitors and expats live among centuries-old ruins of colonial buildings and soaring volcanic peaks, admiring the lively handicraft and art scene.

American Stephanie Allison Jolluck was part of that community. She wrote on her photography website: “I am a designer and social entrepreneur who has always been fascinated by Indigenous cultures. As a lover of ethnographic art, antiques, and handicrafts, I enjoy shopping markets around the world.”

It was on one such shopping trip that she claims to have picked up two ceremonial basalt stone carvings, which she told a judge she thought were cheap souvenirs at a public market in Antigua, purportedly as a gift for her brother.