Egypt Returns Smuggled Artifacts to Peru, Ecuador

ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT—Customs officials in Egypt were reportedly surprised to learn that artifacts were being smuggled into their country. They intercepted packages shipped from the United States that contained clay figurines made by Peru’s Chancay culture between 1000 and 1475 A.D., and terracotta heads crafted by Ecuador’s Valdivia culture in 2000 B.C. The artifacts were probably headed to a private collection. Peruvian Ambassador Alberto Gálvez de Rivero thanked Egypt’s Antiquities Minister Mohamed Ibrahim and praised the “collaboration between two partner nations working together to return illegally removed pieces to their legitimate owners.”