Lost pre-Inca treasure found in Spanish lock-up

[Tempest]

Lost pre-Inca treasure found in Spanish lock-up


Dale Fuchs in Madrid
Thursday December 6, 2007
The Guardian


Police have uncovered a hidden storage room in Spain holding 1,800 pieces of pre-Colombian art, including ceremonial masks, ceramics, jewellery and a suit of 37 plates of gold - artefacts from a collection last seen in public 10 years ago.
Many of the metallic pieces, including four copper masks, four gold rattles and four gold nose pendants, derived from the ancient tomb of the Lord of Sipan, one of the most important vestiges of pre-Inca Moche culture in Peru.

The treasure, "of incalculable value" say police, had remained undetected for 10 years in a secure room beneath a home in Galicia. The artefacts had been last exhibited in 1997, in Santiago de Compostela. The curator of the exhibit, a Costa Rican man who is now wanted in Peru, has since disappeared, police said in a statement yesterday. A spokesman refused to name the curator, who they suspect first hid the treasure then fled the country.
According to the paper El País, the exhibition that brought the treasure to Spain was organised by the Galician regional government. The 1992 Nobel peace prize winner Rigoberta Menchú had attended the opening ceremony. The curator had told government officials that the 1,800 pieces belonged to his private collection of pre-Colombian art, which he valued at $100m. Officials became suspicious, however, when he tried to sell the collection after the show for €18m.

After an archaeologist warned officials that some pieces could have been plundered, the curator fled, El País said.

Thirty-one pieces from the stash were yesterday returned to Peruvian officials, who had begun the investigation in January when they suspected that the missing pieces might be in Spain.

The country also seeks to recover a further 200 pieces from other sites. Officials in El Salvador and Argentina have formally requested the return of their artefacts.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2222675,00.html