Legal News

HMRC seizes and returns 2500-year-old smuggled statue to Libya

Published on: 09 March 2022
Published by LNB News

LNB News 09/03/2022

Document Information

Issue Date: 09 March 2022

Published Date: 09 March 2022

Jurisdiction(s): United Kingdom

Article summary

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) returned a statue from 630BC, that is believed to represent the Goddess Persephone, to the Libyan embassy in London in May 2021. HMRC reported this was looted from the UNESCO World Heritage site in Libya and was shipped into the UK in 2011 using false documents that described the artifact as a ‘stone decoration from Turkey’. This investigation was led by a specialist team within HMRC’s Fraud Investigation Service that worked closely with the British Museum.

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