U.S. returns nine artifacts to Libya, including two from the 4th century BC

U.S. returns 9 artifacts from Libya

　　The Libyan government said on March 31 that the U.S. government returned nine stolen cultural relics smuggled into the United States that day, including two from the 4th century BC.

　　According to the Associated Press, this batch of Libyan cultural relics, including stone statues and pottery, were all stolen and smuggled to the United States, and are now returned to the Libyan National Museum.

Two of the artifacts from the 4th century BC were unearthed from the archaeological site of Cyrena in northeastern Libya. They are two ancient Greek-style stone statues.

The U.S. embassy in Libya said in a statement that a statue of a female head in a veil was previously held by a private collector; the other, a bust, has been in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York since 1998.

　　Mohammad Faraj Mohamed, director of the Libyan antiquities management department, said that these cultural relics were not stolen from Libyan museums, so there was no official record in Libya.

　　Antonia Marie de Meo, head of the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute, said the process of returning artifacts was complex and required a lot of cooperation from all parties.

　　Museums across Libya used to collect a large number of cultural relics, but after the overthrow of the Gaddafi regime in 2011, many cultural relics were looted due to the turmoil in the country, and a large number of archaeological sites in the country were also stolen.

　　The archaeological site of Cyrene was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1982.

The site was added to the World Heritage List in Danger in 2016 due to lack of protection and looting.