Current:Home > Contact-usAlbania returns 20 stolen icons to neighboring North Macedonia-LoTradeCoin
Albania returns 20 stolen icons to neighboring North Macedonia
View Date:2024-12-23 16:46:43
TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Albania on Friday returned 20 icons to neighboring North Macedonia that were stolen a decade ago, Albania’s Culture Ministry said.
The return marked the final stretch on a long, 10-year road with “much inter-institutional and international cooperation,” said Albania’s Culture Minister Elva Margariti. It also showed Albania’s commitment to “the fight against trafficking of the cultural inheritance objects,” she said.
A handover ceremony was held at the National Historic Museum in the Albanian capital of Tirana. No further details were provided about the icons.
In 2013, Albanian authorities in Tirana seized more than 1,000 stolen religious and secular pieces of art dating from the 15th to the mid-20th century and arrested two men suspected of planning to sell them abroad.
The icons, frescoes and other pieces were taken from churches and cultural centers in southeastern Albania and in the neighboring North Macedonia, a police statement had said.
North Macedonian Culture Minister Bisera Kostadinovska thanked Albanian authorities. Skopje had officially put in a request for the return of the icons in 2018, after which Albanian experts examined and checked the pieces.
In 2022, the two ministries signed the agreement for their return during a joint Cabinets’ meeting in Skopje, the first of the kind in the region.
Many icons and other artworks in Albania are believed to have been looted from churches and other places, especially during the anarchy of 1997 in Albania, when many in the country — among some of the continent’s poorest people — lost their life savings in failed pyramid schemes.
Both Albania and North Macedonia have launched full membership negotiations with the European Union.
___
Follow Llazar Semini at https://twitter.com/lsemini
veryGood! (844)
Related
- Sister Wives’ Kody Brown Explains His Stance on His Daughter Gwendlyn Brown’s Sexuality
- Tribes Working to Buck Unemployment with Green Jobs
- Two Years Ago, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Was Praised for Appointing Science and Resilience Officers. Now, Both Posts Are Vacant.
- Ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick, now 92, not competent to stand trial in sex abuse case, expert says
- Advocacy group sues Tennessee over racial requirements for medical boards
- Wage theft often goes unpunished despite state systems meant to combat it
- The Petroleum Industry May Want a Carbon Tax, but Biden and Congressional Republicans are Not Necessarily Fans
- U.S. Mayors Pressure Congress on Carbon Pricing, Climate Lawsuits and a Green New Deal
- Timothée Chalamet Details How He Transformed Into Bob Dylan for Movie
- Read full text of the Supreme Court decision on web designer declining to make LGBTQ wedding websites
Ranking
- Moana 2 Star Dwayne Johnson Shares the Empowering Message Film Sends to Young Girls
- Read full text of the Supreme Court decision on web designer declining to make LGBTQ wedding websites
- EPA Plans to Rewrite Clean Water Act Rules to Fast-Track Pipelines
- How did each Supreme Court justice vote in today's student loan forgiveness ruling? Here's a breakdown
- North Carolina offers schools $1 million to help take students on field trips
- The Real Reason Kellyanne Conway's 18-Year-Old Daughter Claudia Joined Playboy
- After Katrina, New Orleans’ Climate Conundrum: Fight or Flight?
- Biden Puts Climate Change at Center of Presidential Campaign, Calling Trump a ‘Climate Arsonist’
Recommendation
-
The View's Sara Haines Walks Off After Whoopi Goldberg's NSFW Confession
-
When do student loan payments resume? Here's what today's Supreme Court ruling means for the repayment pause.
-
Migrant boat disaster: What to know about the tragedy off the coast of Greece
-
Activists Gird for a Bigger Battle Over Oil and Fumes from a Port City’s Tank Farms
-
Women suing over Idaho’s abortion ban describe dangerous pregnancies, becoming ‘medical refugees’
-
No Drop in U.S. Carbon Footprint Expected Through 2050, Energy Department Says
-
Jonah Hill and Olivia Millar Step Out After Welcoming First Baby
-
Compassion man leaves behind a message for his killer and legacy of empathy