Romanian police who have been monitoring international and Romanian auction house websites, resulting in the raids of the Artmark auction house and 3 “collectors”.

During the course of these raids police have seized 3 golden Koson coins, 1,050 silver coins and 114 other artefacts. All of the artefacts have been handed over to experts at the National Historical Museum who will determine if any of the items will be returned to the “collectors”.

“At least some of these objects come from treasures stolen from protected archaeological sites,” prosecutor Augustin Lazar, in charge of the investigation in Alba Iulia, central Romania said. Lazar also said that he was “not surprised that thieves try to put such objects up for auction,” in an effort to “launder” them.

Image credit: By CNG – http://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=126637, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5725379