According to the European police force Europol, an operation aimed at cracking down on international art trafficking has led to the recovery of 11,049 stolen artefacts. The operation, dubbed
"Operation Pandora," was launched by Europol in 2016 and has been renewed annually since then. Last year, sixty people were arrested across fourteen European countries in raids aimed at recovering stolen artefacts.
Among the stolen artefacts recovered were more than 3,000 ancient coins, 77 ancient books stolen from a monastery's archives, 89 religious sculptures, and a marble bust believed to depict Salonia Matidia, the niece of Trajan, a Roman emperor who reigned from 98 to 117 AD.
Spain was the lead country in the latest reported Operation Pandora crackdown, with support from Europol and Interpol. Other participating countries included Austria, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, and Sweden. Photo by OSeveno, Wikimedia commons.