[MSN] ALGERIA: STOLEN MARCUS AURELIUS BUST RETURNS TO ALGIERS

[MSN]

ALGERIA: STOLEN MARCUS AURELIUS BUST RETURNS TO ALGIERS 
 
(ANSAmed) - ALGIERS, APRIL 17 - The marble bust of the Roman Emperor Marcus
Aurelius from the II century, stolen in 1996 from the Museum of Skikda
(500km east of Algiers) and returned by the United States to Algeria, was
placed today in the Museum of Antiquity in Algiers. "After a long diplomatic
and judicial battle, we recover today a piece of our heritage and of our
history", Culture Minister Khalida Toumi said during the ceremony. The
statue had been returned in January by the U.S. Department of the Interior
Ministry (Homeland security) to the Algerian Embassy in Washington. "A
further eight finds stolen together with the bust have not yet been
recovered", Toumi added. "These are seven marble sculptures and one stone
sculpture. In particular, they are heads of women, of one man, of a boy and
a girl and of a clown", she specified. The Algerian authorities had reported
the theft to Interpol in 1997. Seven years later, in 2004, the British
company The Art Loss Registry, specialised in the research of stolen art
works and antiquities, identified the found bust in a catalogue of valuable
objects auctioned by Christiés at its gallery Rockefeller Plaza in New York,
on behalf of art gallery 'Samarcanda, ancient art' in Paris. (ANSAmed). 
2008-04-17 20:00
 
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