This is enough to enrich the collection of the National Archeology Museum of Saint-Germain en Laye.

Gil Lorenzo, the Interregional director of customs for Ile-de-France, presented this Tuesday, May 17, to Rose-Marie Mousseaux, director of the Yvelines Museum, a set of antique pieces seized in 2018 by customs officers.

This handover took place as part of the "fortnight against trafficking in cultural property" organized by French customs from May 17 to 24.

“In total, there are 22 coins, bronze and silver, dated from the end of the 2nd century BC to the end of the Gallic Wars, identified from 13 regions of Gaul, appearing on each on their face, diademed heads, warriors, weapons, animals, or stylized motifs, in beaded circles with or without monogram”, specifies the customs press release.

Shipped by parcel post and without license

These archaeological treasures were intercepted in April 2018 when they were sent by parcel post "by an auction house in the Grand Est to the United States".

An expertise carried out by the Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs of Ile-de-France then reveals "that these are indeed Gallo-Roman coins of significant historical and archaeological value".

As these coins do not have an export licence, “they were seized and then abandoned for the benefit of the Public Treasury by the sender in October 2018”.

Finally on December 2, 2021, the archeology museum agrees to receive and integrate these pieces into these collections.

It will be possible to admire these Gallo-Roman pieces during the exhibition entitled

Stolen past, the other side of the treasure

organized by the museum of Saint-Germain-en-Laye from May 26 until the end of August.

An “educational exhibition to denounce the behaviors that destroy the scientific contexts of archaeological discoveries through looting”, specifies the press release.

Justice

Vaucluse: A collector sentenced to more than 200,000 euros in fines for looting and concealment of antique objects

More than 1,000 archaeological objects seized by customs in Strasbourg

  • Paris

  • Ile-de-France

  • Customs

  • Archeology

  • Saint-germain-en-laye