Ancient Peruvian artefacts seized

[emad]

Ancient Peruvian artefacts seized
By Simon Watts
BBC News, Miami


Customs officials in Florida have seized more than 300 ancient Peruvian artefacts smuggled into the US.

The artefacts include a clay vessel thought to be 3,500 years old.

The operation was one of the largest of its kind and was launched after officers received a tip-off. One person has been arrested.

This pre-Columbian collection will now be returned to Peru, but customs officers say many other artefacts have not been found.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4278354.stm

[acmavm]

1. Funny how the stuff almost always ends up here.

.

[SpiralHawk]

2. Did they recover any Skull & Bones?

The pResident* would like to have them delivered to the White House Krypt, and placed on display next to Geronimo's Skull, and the Jeff Gannon Bulldog Top, with Leather Fetish Fringe.

[Mabus]

8. Don't forget Saddam's pistol

Didn't he have the pistol mounted and showed if off like a trophy?

[Mikimouse]

3. I hope that they can force the smuggler to reveal his buyers...

I hate these people. They are not only stealing cultural heritage, but depriving those of us with an interest in history of the opportunity to learn.

[Tanuki]

5. I agree

This kind of thing goes on under our noses all the time and it burns me up. E-bay is full of artifacts imported illegally from southeast Asia and Latin America, where the desperately poor turn to plundering local antiquities in order to survive. It's like the illegal drug trade...if "collectors" with an insatiable appetite for looted treasures weren't creating the market, it would stop. Oh, and that's another thing...when these objects, ripped from their cultural context, show up as conversation pieces in a luxurious home, the L-word ("looted") isn't used.

[malaise]

6. Well so called respectable people

like the English peer Lord Carnovan made his fortune robbing Egyptian graves. History shows that showing respect for the dead has never taken precedence over rich men making money.

[1932]

4. Jeb's wife just back from a Peruvian vacation?

[Judi Lynn]

7. Being his wife HAS to have some perks, after all.....

Otherwise it would be a marriage to a collossal @$$.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

9. Impossible. THe universe is only 2,443 yrs old.

So say a group of preachers in central Illinois. (the 6,000 yr estimate is too long, according to their reading of their science book)