Officials recovered around 38,000 valuable cultural objects and arrested 80 suspects in 23 countries in the fight against the international theft of cultural property, Europol announced on Thursday.
Guardia Civil coordinated the international investigation, codenamed Pandora IX and carried out throughout 2024, involving law enforcement and customs officials from 23 countries.
The recovered artifacts included artworks, coins, musical instruments, paintings and archaeological finds, with 258 cases reported by the participating countries.
Artefacts from Roman and Punic periods recovered
Europol, which is based in , said the operation was the ninth edition of Operation Pandora, which targets the trafficking of cultural goods and was set up in 2016. Investigations are continuing, and further arrests could be expected, Europol said.
“Authorities also confiscated 69 metal detectors and 23 tools commonly used for illegal excavations, underlining the persistent threat of looting to cultural sites,” it explained.
The Italian carabinieri had seized more than 300 items, including coins, metal and ceramic fragments such as arrowheads and spearheads dating back to the Roman and Punic periods, Europol added. The artifacts were being offered for sale online and were discovered in a private apartment.
In Spain, the Guardia Civil dismantled a criminal group involved in archaeological looting as they recovered 2,500 archaeological, primarily Roman, coins minted in the Celtiberian city of Tamusia.
Those artifacts had been looted from protected archaeological sites in the province of Caceres using metal detectors and were being sold illegally through social media platforms.
Meanwhile, a passenger flying from Spain’s Palma de Mallorca to Germany was found to be carrying 55 ancient coins and a ring. A subsequent investigation led to an indictment for crimes of plundering underwater wrecks and other archaeological sites.
In that case, a total of 64 objects of historical value and 1,576 ancient coins were confiscated.
In , the Department of Cultural Heritage and Antiquities of Athens recovered five Byzantine icons. Acting on intelligence and using special investigative techniques, including an undercover officer, three individuals were arrested while attempting to sell the icons for € 70,000.
Cyberinvestigators contributed to operation
In addition to on-the-ground operations, cyberpatrols were carried out during the operation to identify potential illicit online sales of cultural property.
The virtual investigations led to the opening of new cases, with a total of 4,298 cultural goods seized as a result of the cyberpatrols.
Edited by: Sean Sinico
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