Strata

Last-Minute Rescue

Stolen Artifacts Recovered at Port

Three years of careful surveillance paid off for the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) last summer when agents at Haifa’s port seized a shipping container loaded with hundreds of ancient artifacts bound for Atlanta, Georgia.

Looted from ancient graves and other archaeological sites throughout Israel and the West Bank, the booty includes glass and bronze vessels, architectural fragments, stone carvings, coins, pottery and other objects dating from the Canaanite to the Islamic period (3000 B.C. to 1000 A.D.).

A former antiquities dealer who recently fled to the United States is believed to be responsible for the theft. The IAA has filed charges with the police, said Amir Ganor, director of the IAA’s antitheft unit. In Israel, antiquities theft and unlicensed antiquities commerce are punishable by up to three years in prison.