• Most Popular
  • Most Shared

Spain seizes stolen South American artifacts

MADRID
Tue May 6, 2008 12:38pm EDT
Antiquities of ''incalculable'' worth that were plundered from archaeological sites in South America and smuggled to Europe, according to Spanish police, are displayed in Madrid May 6, 2008. REUTERS/Spanish police/Handout

MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish police have seized more than 700 priceless artifacts plundered from archaeological sites in South America and smuggled to Europe, they said on Tuesday.

Arts

The pieces, predating the Spanish conquest, included dozens of valuable golden objects, masks, vessels, pendants and maces, stolen from Peru, Ecuador and Colombia.

An Interior Ministry statement said police had arrested a Spanish man and his Colombian wife who had been trafficking in stolen artifacts for years, selling them in auction houses in Europe, mainly in France.

The couple had planned to stage an exhibition and auction this month in France, but were arrested after returning from Colombia.

The seized artifacts will be sent for analysis to the Madrid Archaeological Museum and authorities expected them to be claimed by their countries of origin.

(Reporting by Martin Roberts; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
Arts


More from Reuters

Demonstrator holds a signboard with a slogan "Bla bla bla ACT NOW" during a rally outside the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen December 12, 2009. REUTERS/Christian Charisius

"Polluters are given rights to continue their dirty habits"

A climate change scientist blasts proposals for a cap and trade system, arguing it allows dirty industries to continue polluting, instead of rewarding innovation.  Full Article | Full Coverage 

    Climate Conference
    A farmer carries buckets to collect water as he walks on a dried-up pond on the outskirts of Yingtan, Jiangxi province November 3, 2009. REUTERS/Stringer

    The heat is on

    Farmers in northwest China are living with lost crops, dry wells and frequent droughts. Their resulting poverty is directly linked to climate change.  Full Article 

    Green Business
    Indian woman mourns death of her relative killed in tsunami in Cuddalore. When an earthquake of magnitude 9.15 struck off Indonesia's Aceh province on December, 26, 2004, it triggered a huge tsuanmi that raced across the Indian Ocean and hit Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India. The worst natural disaster of the decade left 230,000 people dead or missing. Taken on December 28, 2004 by Arko Datta

    Pictures that defined a decade

    A woman's grief amid the tsunami devastation and one woman's fight against police in the Amazon are among the indelible Reuters images of the last 10 years.  Slideshow 

    Pictures