Barcelona: Dodgy Dealings Stopped

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The National Police has arrested six people and accuses them of being part of a criminal group and crimes against the heritage (Núria Juanico Llumà, 'Confisquen 71 peces arqueològiques espoliades a una galeria de Barcelona', Ara 19/01/2024).

The National Police has confiscated 71 archaeological pieces from the looting and most of them were found in a gallery in Barcelona, whose name has not been released. These are items dating from the Visigothic, Nassarite, Caliphate and Renaissance periods and which had been distributed irregularly through antique shops and specialist shops. Among the objects are columns, capitals, Islamic beams, an Arabic funerary stele, sculptures and four Visigothic belt buckles. [...] agents have arrested six people (five in Granada and one in Barcelona) for crimes against historical heritage, belonging to a criminal group and money laundering. [...] The agents have found private sales contracts in the hands of the manager of [a Barcelona shop], in which he stated that these pieces came from an old collection inherited by a family member. According to the police, the criminal group consisted of 10 people from the same family, some of whom have not been arrested because they are outside the country. Some located pieces of looted archaeology, falsified their documentation and introduced them to the legal market.