Return of three historic bracelets

After considerable investigation, the premier of the Flanders region of Belgium, Jan Jambon was able to return three antique gold bracelets to a Romanian delegation.

Three historic artefacts returned

The presentation at the Antwerp Museum on February 19 was the culmination of months of investigation by archaeologists and a police team following the discovery of two supposed Belgian gold bracelets  entered into an auction in Monaco and said to date back to 1,000 BC.

If this was true, then they would have been an important find for the history of Flanders but experts considered that the explanation by the owner that they had been found after dredging a moat around a property in Flanders unconvincing.

Nothing of this type has ever been found in Belgium and the style was typical of the type of bracelets found in the Eastern Carpathians.

The bracelets were immediately classified as of historical importance which meant that they were withdrawn from the auction where they had an estimated value of €80,000 to €100,000 and the ‘owner’ was interviewed.

Removed illegally

It then emerged that he had obtained three rather than two bracelets in Romania from an illegal excavation and they had been exported without a licence which then allowed the authorities to confiscate them and return these important examples of Romanian heritage back to the country that they had been removed from.