[MSN] Lima - Peru has recovered 18 archaeological pieces, including a pre-Columbian copper funeral mask, smuggled out of the country and later handed over voluntarily by a German collector, officials said on Tuesday.

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Peru gets pre-Columbian pieces back 

    July 25 2007 at 01:09AM  
 
Lima - Peru has recovered 18 archaeological pieces, including a
pre-Columbian copper funeral mask, smuggled out of the country and later
handed over voluntarily by a German collector, officials said on Tuesday.

The collector turned in the pieces to the Peruvian consulate in Hamburg in
2004, because he "considered it his moral responsibility to restore this
part of Peru's archaeological heritage, which had been illegally removed
from our country", the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said it took more than two years to repatriate the objects
because they had to be authenticated and insured for shipment.

Among the objects are small animal sculptures and ceramics that likely
belonged to the pre-Incan Chimu, Viru and Mochica cultures, the president of
Peru's cultural institute, Cecilia Bakula, told journalists.

"The pieces are extraordinary," she said. "The quality of these pieces is
very good."

For years looters have snuck artifacts out of Peru, including valuable
jewels and precious objects from ancient Indian cultures as well as colonial
art works.

In September last year a 1 300-year-old gold headdress representing the
likeness of a sea god was handed over to cultural authorities after it was
located by British police in London. And in June the United States returned
412 ancient Peruvian artifacts seized in a Florida smuggling investigation. 

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