Yaxchilan Lintel 24

British Museum director Neil McGregor

Late Classic Maya limestone carving from Yaxchilan, in modern Chiapas, Mexico (" A masterpiece of Maya art"). Wikipedia, friend of Universal Museums says:

"Lintel 24 was found in its original context alongside Lintels 25 and 26 in Structure 23 of Yaxchilan. Alfred Maudslay had the lintel cut from the ceiling of a side entrance in 1882 and shipped to Great Britain where it remains today in the British Museum of London"

This lintel would be seen better in the company of Lindow Man and the Hamilton vases, or the other sculptures from the same building and the contemporary (and preceding and succeeding) buildings on the same site? What about their regional context?What use is it sawn off, ripped out and taken away from all of that isolated as a lone trophy piece of sawn-off stone in amongst a hose of other pieces of sawn-off, ripped out and carted off pieces of trophy stone?