Law enforcement officials across Europe arrested 60 people last year in a crackdown that retrieved over 11,000 trafficked artworks and artefacts including ancient books, sculptures and coins, Interpol said on Thursday.
As part of an annual operation codenamed Pandora VII, forces led by Spain’s Guardia Civil police swooped on the art criminals from September 13 to 24 last year in a slew of European nations, the inter-national police cooperation body said.
The items recovered included 77 ancient books in Italy stolen from a monastery, thousands of historic coins in Poland, and 48 religious sculptures and other artefacts in Portugal, believed to have been nabbed in a string of church robberies in the 1990s and early 2000s.—AFP
