Spain hands back to Egypt antiquities seized from traffickers

During a ceremony at the National Archaeological Museum, Egypt's Ambassador to Madrid Youssef Diaeldin Mekkawy thanked Spain for the recovery of the valuable pieces, including the lion's head of the warrior goddess Sekhmet carved in granite.

The artefacts that were on display at the museum on Monday also included four canopic jars used by ancient Egyptians to keep the embalmed viscera of the deceased, as well as figurines of several gods and goddesses.

Valued at more than 150,000 euros ($170,000), they had all probably been looted from sites at Saqqara and Mit Rahina, according to the Spanish police.

"The recovery of these 36 archaeological pieces is a successful operation that has lasted years, an operation coordinated between Egyptian and Spanish authorities," said the ambassador.

The antiquities were seized in 2014 by Spanish police after an investigation that led to the arrest of seven people, six Egyptians and one Spaniard, in Tortosa and Barcelona in Spain and in Egypt, Spanish police had said back then.