Ancient gold crown seized from smugglers

Turkish Police’s Anti-Smuggling and Organized Crime Branch has seized a 2200-year old gold crown and silver bowl  in Istanbul during a hotel raid against historical artefact smugglers. 

The golden crown (by Hurriyet Daily News)

Undercover Policemen got in touch with the suspects by pretending to be interested in buying the artefacts, representing themselves as antique dealers. The raid has been conducted when the officers learned that suspects had tried to sell a number of historical artefacts, which were offered for sale for 1 million US dollars (the crown) and 500000 turkish liras (the bowl), which is an equivalent of over 131000 US dollars. The golden crown, which dates back to the Hellenistic era, a broken silver bowl and a golden ring were seized in a bag in the raid. According to the officials, the artefacts have been sent to the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museums for further examinations.

(after Hurriyet Daily News)

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