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Stolen 2000 Year Old Roman Statue Recovered – In Belgium

A Roman statue stolen in Italy in November, 2011, has been recovered – hundreds of miles away in an antique shop in Belgium.

Believed to date to the first century BCE, the toga wearing white stone figure of a male without his head was discovered by two Italian police officers on an evening out after a day’s work in the Belgian capital earlier this year.

SC Of Image original copyright Italian Culture Ministry

The officers, intrigued at what they were seeing, checked a worldwide database specialising in stolen works of art before finding the statue had been taken from the Villa Marini Dettina archaeological site in the Italian capital Rome almost a decade ago.

According to reports in the Italian media it is valued at around 100,000 euros.

After the two Italians reported the find to local Belgian authorities the statue was taken ‘into custody’ and later returned to its original home.

It is understood that at least one Italian, albeit posing as a Spanish national, and supposedly a trader / antiques dealer is now going through a legal case to explain his involvement in the case and why he exported the statue from Italy to Belgium – an illegal act without government clearance when related to ancient artefacts leaving Italy.

Amy Wu

Amy is a Taiwanese graduate student based in Phoenix, Arizona, currently home in Hsinchu to ride out the COVID-19 pandemic. She has a passion for Hakka culture, and the rights of minorities around the world. She will cover SE Asian news and topics.