Spanish police bust massive illegal bone, artifact collections

By Alyssa McMurtry

OVIEDO, Spain (AA) – Spanish police on Friday said they have busted two illegal bone and archaeological artifact collectors in Alicante.

The seizure was one of the largest of an illegal private collection in the coastal province’s history.

Police recovered 350 illegal archeological artifacts and around 200 bone fragments.

They were allegedly owned by two men and stored at two separate residences.

“The pieces were supposedly inherited from a deceased relative by the resident of the property. However, he did not possess any type of documentation that would justify the property or show that he had taken any steps to regularize it,” according to a police statement.

Authorities have called upon local cultural associations to help evaluate and store the artifacts.

The collection included bone fragments up to 5,000 years old, mills from the Bronze Age and Neolithic era, weavers and a loom from the ancient Roman period, an iron grenade from the 18th century, Roman ointments, and several fossils.

The two men were charged with crimes related to aggravated misappropriation of goods of artistic, historical, cultural and scientific value, the statement said.