An ancient helmet from modern-day Bulgaria has been returned to the country by US authorities, the Bulgarian Interior Ministry said.
This was made possible by the Office of the Attorney General in New York, which led a large international operation to thwart a criminal scheme to smuggle cultural and historical artifacts. Law enforcement services from 11 different countries (Bulgaria, Egypt, Greece, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Syria, Turkey) participated in the operation.
The helmet was confiscated from one of the largest collections of antiquities in the world after US investigators were able to prove that it had been smuggled in.
The headdress dating from 500-400 BC. has an estimated value of US $ 200,000. It is made of iron, silver, brass and organic materials. Experts believe that its place of origin is near the village of Pletena, in southwestern Bulgaria, and they speculate that it may have been worn by Philip II of Macedonia.
On February 10th, the official ceremony at the Consulate General of Bulgaria in New York marked the return of antiquity. Consul General Maya Christova offered a letter of thanks from Interior Minister Boyko Raskov to the heads of US operations that led the operation in cooperation with the Directorate-General for Organized Crime and the Department of International Business Cooperation of the Ministry of Interior.
In her speech, Consul General Christova stated that this event strengthened the already excellent cooperation between the prosecuting and judicial institutions of the two countries.
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