Скачать или смотреть US official returns sumggled artifacts to Peru

(30 Apr 2004)

1. Mid shot Assistant Secretary Garcia and Ambassador Ferrero shake hands
2. Various of recovered artifacts
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Michael Garcia, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary:
"These are cultural treasures and they really do not belong to any one person. They belong to a society, a culture and they should be enjoyed by everyone. ICE's mission is to stop the illicit trade in these artifacts, to track down and return the items and make sure they go back to their rightful owners."
4. Mid shot ancient textile on display
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Michael Garcia, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary:
"The artifacts that you see being returned here today really illustrate very different aspects of that same problem: people going there looting material for their own purposes to bring back for their collections, people buying and selling these artifacts over the Internet and people hoarding it basically in their private collections and denying the people of Peru and other countries the right to see their heritage."
6. Close up returned ceramic vases
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Eduardo Ferrero, Peruvian Ambassador to Washington:
"It is also possible that just some of these pieces, in agreement with our government could be exhibited here for some time in the States, in the Peruvian Embassy so that also Americans can see them. But as a legal activity and then afterwards they will be taken back to Peru."
8. Wide shot Ambassador Ferrero behind podium
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Eduardo Ferrero, Peruvian Ambassador to Washington:
"This continues. This looting and all these things that are taken from Peru is a problem of the past, of the present and of the future."
10. Various of surveillance video where artifacts are being shown and traded

STORYLINE:

US authorities have returned more than one (m) million dollars worth of smuggled ancient artifacts to Peru.

The 41 artifacts were smuggled from protected archaeological sites in Peru by individuals who sought them for their personal collections or who intended to sell them for profit.

Dating from 100 A.D. to 1,530 A.D., the items come from the Mochica, Chimu, and Chancay cultures.

They include a rare mother-of-pearl knife, gold and plaque ornaments, nose jewelry, copper pins, pottery, pottery sherd, and textile fragments.

In a ceremony in Washington DC, United States' Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Michael Garcia returned the artifacts to Peruvian Ambassador Eduardo Ferrero.

ICE federal agents recovered the objects through three different investigations into antiquities smugglers and dealers in several US states.

In one case, ICE federal agents in Virginia arrested a 74-year-old man from Virginia, after he attempted to sell a collection of Peruvian artifacts to undercover ICE agents in a sting operation.

Some of these artifacts, including a number of well-preserved textiles, were more than 1,000 years old.

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