German police return smuggled artifacts to Kosovo

Seven artifacts dating as far back as 4,000 B.C. have been returned to Kosovo after German police stumbled on them in an unrelated raid, the country's culture minister said Friday.

1/4. Displayed is zoom orphic head, part of artifacts returned from Germany to the Kosovo Archeology Museum in capital Pristina on Friday, Feb. 22, 2013. The artifacts are believed to have been stolen during the 1998-99 Kosovo war. (AP Photo/ Visar Kryeziu)

The artifacts date to the Neolithic period and are believed to belong to the Vinca, a prehistoric culture that traces back to 5,500 B.C. in southern Europe. Police in central Germany found them in 2005 during a separate undisclosed investigation, discovering the pieces in a sports bag belonging to two Serbs.

It is not clear how they were brought out of the country, but authorities believe they were meant for sale to private collectors.

"Most likely they had been illegally transferred to Germany," Memli Krasniqi told The Associated Press.

There was no registry for the items and it took investigators years to authenticate them and confirm they belong to Kosovo.

"It has been a long period of expertise and analysis that we've done together with German authorities to conclude that they have been smuggled from Kosovo," Krasniqi said.

On Friday, they were placed in Kosovo's Archeological Museum in the capital Pristina alongside the museum's sole artifact, a similar terracotta figurine known as Goddess on the Throne, returned from Serbia through the mediation of the United Nations. [...] vcstar.com/ via archaeology.org