Yemen recovers five thousands of relics

SANA'A, June 20 (Saba)- The Yemeni authorities have foiled attempts
to smuggle five thousands of priceless relics for sale abroad, a
source at the General Authority for Artifacts and Manuscripts has
said.

These artifacts included bronze statues, stones boards, arrows
heads, ibex statue and several manuscripts, the sources said.

The GPC-run almotamar.net quoted the source as saying during the
last year until current month the authorities could recover five
thousands of relics after they thwarted 90 attempts to smuggle them
through borders.

Many of those who were trying to traffic these artifacts belong to
different nations such France, Italy, Canada, Jordan, Iraq and
Syria.

The source added that relics smuggling gangs have recently started
to follow new methods to realize their goals and there are news that
such groups affiliate with foreign oil companies working in the
country.

And this raises concerns about the aggravation of smuggling ancient
artifacts phenomenon.