Quito, December 23 (RHC-teleSUR) -- Over 4,000 trafficked archaeological pieces stolen from Ecuador have been returned to the country. A selection of the artifacts were presented to the press, and declarations made by authorities followed the ceremony.
It is the single largest recovery of goods the country has seen since the founding of the Technical Committee in the Fight Against Illicit Trafficking of Goods in 2010. According to the committee, Ecuador is one of the countries most affected by the trafficking of archaeological goods.
Since President Rafael Correa came to office in 2007, over 10,000 pieces have been returned to the country.
The stolen pieces were recovered from three separate collections. The collection Pavesi contained 687 pieces, 667 artifacts were recovered from the Genova Collection, and 3,054 from the Norero Collection.
Ninety-five percent of the artifacts recovered are ceramics, while the rest of the pieces are made of shell, metal and bone. Over 4,000 pieces have been determined to be prehispanic in origin, and cultural heritage of Ecuador. Through testing, it was determined that 726 of the artifacts are modern replicas, and 80 were impossible to identify.
The recovery of the pieces is considered fundamental for restoring a sense of national identity under the Citizen's Revolution. As a continuation of these policies, Ecuador will be working to recover goods of historical and cultural importance currently in Argentina and Chile in the next year.
