19,000 stolen art objects found by the police

The two raids were conducted in collaboration between Interpol and Europol, among others, and national police forces and 101 people have been arrested, writes The Guardian.

In particular, they have focused on the criminal networks that steal from museums, loot archaeological sites and exploit the chaos of war-torn countries to cut valuable historical treasures. The efforts were made already in the fall of 2019, but the police have chosen not to tell us about it until now for "investigative reasons".

Spanish police were able, among other things, to seize gold figurines, antique jewelry and a gold mask from Tumaco - items all stolen from Colombia. At the same time, a raid was conducted in Bogotá where another 242 prehistoric Colombian objects were taken into custody. Similar police efforts were made in Argentina, Latvia and Afghanistan.