The coins have been recovered by the Colombian embassy in Washington since 2018 thanks to "seizures" and "returns from North American collectors", explains to AFP Alhena Caicedo, director of the Colombian Institute of anthropology and history (ICANH).

Made of ceramic, stone or shell by different indigenous communities in Colombia between 500 BC and 500 AD, the artifacts traveled in the luggage of Colombian President Gustavo Petro when he returned from the United Nations General Assembly in New York (USA) last week.

The dozens of boxes that contain the artifacts are now in a living room of the Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs that AFP was able to visit.

In the center of the room, some of the archaeological treasures are displayed.

After donning latex gloves, ICANH officials carefully handle the pieces.

Most of the items were voluntarily handed over by an American woman who inherited them from her deceased husband.

He himself had acquired them in the 1970s in Cali (southwest).

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Others were confiscated by the American federal police (FBI) and handed over to the Colombian embassy, ​​as part of an agreement between the two countries for the restitution of cultural objects from the black market.

These artifacts "came out of the country illegally, we don't know when exactly", explains the director of the institute in charge of keeping these pieces.

They originally come from several regions of Colombia where different indigenous communities lived before the arrival of the Spaniards in 1492.

The Colombian Chancellery still intends to repatriate 730 pieces of "national archaeological heritage" which are currently in its diplomatic representations abroad.

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In 2021, the Colombian vice-president in office Marta Lucía Ramírez asked the prestigious German auction house Gerhard Hirsh to suspend the sale of 25 pre-Columbian works of art.

Other Latin American countries are doing the same as aboriginal peoples denounce the looting of their property.

According to UNESCO, the illicit trade in cultural objects generates nearly 10,000 million dollars.

© 2022 AFP