Ancient coins returned to Bulgaria
During a routine traffic control in Bavaria in April 2011, two police officers discovered a bag containing more than one hundred ancient coins in the glove compartment of a car. In the engine compartment, they found another seven hundred coins, a vase and a cloak pin (known as a fibula). Subsequent scientific research revealed that all of the objects were original antiquities stemming from an illicit excavation in Bulgaria.
Ancient coins returned to Bulgaria.
Source: BKM
In parallel with the criminal investigations in Germany and Bulgaria, the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture initiated a return procedure in close consultation with the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and Arts. In the course of this procedure, the Bulgarian side proved that the objects were Bulgarian cultural property and had been exported after the statutory cut-off date (31 December 1992) without an export license required under Bulgarian law.
In December 2021, the coins, the vase and the fibula were handed over in a ceremony at the Bulgarian embassy in Berlin.
German delegation at the Bulgarian embassy in Berlin.
Source: BKM