Police have recovered a trove of objects stolen from French archaeological digs after the alleged thief tried to claim ownership of 14,000 Roman coins.
Bronze age jewellery, Roman ornaments and medieval weapons were among 27,400 items found at the man’s house and in safe deposit boxes that he rented in Lorraine, northeast France.
The hunt began when the suspect approached the authorities in Belgium to declare that he had found coins minted in the third century AD under the Emperor Antoninus on land that he owned there. Under Belgian law finders are entitled to keep items unearthed on their property, unlike in France, where they have to be handed to the state.
Marleen Martens, head of state archaeology for Flanders, said that she had been
