NIKOSIA - Ancient antiquities have been returned to Cyprus from the United States, Belgium and Germany after a long effort to get back valuable ancient objects unlawfully exported from the island.
The Department of Antiquities, which closely monitors international auctions and private collections for illicitly removed artifacts, secured the return of a clay chariot and a Bichrome IV flask from the Cypro-Archaic period (700-600 BC) from New York, and a Bichrome IV amphora from Belgium dating to 750-600 BC, said Kathimerini.
The U.S. handover took place Aug. 6 at a ceremony organized by the Cypriot Embassy in Washington, while the Belgian amphora was returned the same day in Brussels. A Cypriot seal stone from Germany was also repatriated in June.
Authorities credited the coordinated work of the Cyprus Police, Interpol Nicosia, the Legal Service of the Republic, Eurojust, and foreign counterparts in securing the returns that followed the return of others.
Those included 37 antiquities from Germany in July 2024, a Late Bronze Age juglet from Paris in November 2024, and more than 100 items returned from the United Kingdom in December 2024. The recovered objects span millennia, from Neolithic stone tools to medieval clay vessels.