[MSN] Looted gold headdress returned to Peru

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Looted gold headdress returned to Peru

By RICK VECCHIO
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

   
  In this handout photo, a centuries old gold mask is presented at the
Foreign Minister Building in Lima, Peru on Friday, Sept. 15, 2006. Peru
celebrated the return Friday of a prized centuries old embossed gold mask,
renowned as Peru's equivalent of the "Mona Lisa",a month after its recovery
in London nearly 20 years after it was looted.(AP Photo/Carlos
Lezama,ANDINA-HO):

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/dayart/aponline/52194.98PERU-GOLD-MASK.sff.jpg

  
LIMA, Peru -- Peru celebrated the return Friday of a prized 1,300-year-old
embossed gold headdress looted from an ancient tomb nearly 20 years ago.

With a feline face at its center and eight curving tentacles, the artifact -
which collectors say could be among Peru's most valuable treasures and worth
close to $2 million - was recovered last month in a raid on a London
lawyer's office.

The golden headdress was made in the image of an ancient sea god and dates
back to around 700 A.D., making it a prized example of artwork by the
Mochica civilization that inhabited northern Peru.

It was recovered last month by Scotland Yard's Art and Antiques squad after
an undercover "sting" operation.

Flanked Friday by a heavily armed police detail, Foreign Minister Jose
Antonio Garcia Belaunde delivered the headdress - looted in 1988 from a tomb
in the Jequetepeque valley in northern Peru - to the nation's National
Museum.

There he was met by top National Cultural Institute officials, British
Ambassador Catherine Nettleton and Walter Alva, of Peru's Royal Tombs of
Sipan Museum.

"Today marks the return of an ornament of extraordinary importance,
culturally, artistically," Alva told reporters. "This is the crown of a king
from ancient Peru."

Alva thanked Interpol and Scotland Yard, as well as Michel Van Rijn, a
London-based art dealer, who alerted officers to the existence of the piece
after he was asked to facilitate its sale and realized it had likely been
stolen.

Peruvian officials got in touch with Scotland Yard through the international
police agency Interpol in Lima, and the headdress was seized in a dusty
cabinet of a London law firm, officials said.