Beijing, 1 Apr (Xinhua) -- The Libyan government said on March 31 that the US government returned nine stolen cultural relics smuggled to the United States on the same day, including two from the 4th century BC.
According to the Associated Press, the Libyan cultural relics, including stone statues and pottery, were excavated and smuggled to the United States, and are now returned to the National Museum of Libya. Two of the 4th-century BC artifacts were unearthed from the Cyrene archaeological site in northeastern Libya and are two ancient Greek-style stone statues. The U.S. Embassy in Libya issued a statement saying that one stone statue is a female head in a veil, previously in the collection of a private collector, and a bust, which has been in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York since 1998.
This is a square in the center of Tripoli, the capital of Libya, taken on December 22, 2021 (mobile phone photo). Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Hamza Turkia)
Mohammed Faraj Mohammed, head of Libya's antiquities management department, said the artifacts were not stolen from libyan museums, so there is no official record of them in Libya.
Antonia Marie de Mayo, head of the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute, said the process of returning cultural objects is very complex and requires a lot of cooperation.
This is the archaeological site of Lepotis Magna in Libya, taken on March 20, 2013. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Hamza Turkia)
Museums across Libya once housed a large collection of artifacts, but after the overthrow of the Qaddafi regime in 2011, many were looted in response to the turmoil in the country, and a large number of archaeological sites in the country were excavated.
The Cyrene Archaeological Site was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1982. Due to lack of protection and looting, the site was inscribed on the World Heritage in Danger list in 2016. (Wang Yijun)