Saturday, August 19, 2006

Recovered after 20 years, £1m 'Mona Lisa of Peru'

A 1 million gold headdress - considered one of Peru's most prized artifacts and missing for more than two decades since being looted from an archaeological dig - has been recovered in a raid on a London law firm.

Detectives seized the centuries-old antiquity, described as 'the Mona Lisa of Peru', from the Bond Street firm after a lengthy investigation into stolen goods, London's Metropolitan police said.

Made in the image of an ancient sea god and said to date back to 700AD, the gold headdress is a prized example of artwork by the Mochica civilization of northern Peru

Police plan to hand the valuable over to Peruvian authorities at a ceremony at London's Scotland Yard on August 29.

With photo.

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