Recovery of two statue heads stolen from the Sabratha Museum, Libya
©UNESCO
In March 2013, two statue heads from the classical museum of the archaeological site of Sabratha, inscribed on the World Heritage List (1982), were looted and the statues damaged.
On 7 June 2013, the police in coordination with the 1st Infantry Battalion Libya Shield arrested a network of smugglers indicted in the robbery of two heads of statues from the Sabratha Museum.
The Local Council organized a public ceremony on Thursday 20 June at 4pm, in the presence of the Minister of Culture and the Chairperson of the Department of Antiquities. UNESCO was invited by the Local Council of Sabratha to attend the ceremony.
On this occasion, the Minister of Culture, the Chairperson of the Local Council of Sabratha and the UNESCO Representative in Libya, Lodovico Folin-Calabi, awarded the 25 former freedom fighters and civil society members, who successfully contributed to seize the smugglers and returned the stolen artifacts to the museum.