The Libyan Foreign Ministry said Libya’s embassy in London had received on April 13 an artifact of “Persephone Statue” that was smuggled out of Libya and recovered by British authorities in 2011.
The Foreign Ministry said the reception of the smuggled statue was done in a ceremony that included the Libyan chargé d’affaires and the Head of Greek and Roman section at the British Museum Peter Hugo.
The Foreign Ministry said this achievement was done after a number of legal, political and technical stages that included discussions by embassy staffers and Libyan Antiquities Authority with UK customs and foreign and commonwealth office’s officials as well as officials from the British Museum.
The Persephone Statue is a depiction of an ancient Greek goddess. It was in Shahat in eastern Libya – a UNESCO world heritage site – before it had been smuggled.
