Jerusalem – A 50-year-old Palestinian man was arrested on Tuesday after police seized hundreds of stolen rare antiquities from the Second Temple period stored in his West Bank home in the village of Huwara, near Nablus.
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According to police, jewelry, pottery and hundreds of coins valued at tens of thousands of shekels were found following a joint investigation with the Archaeology Department of the Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria into illegal trafficking on the black market.
The unidentified suspect allegedly sold the antiquities without a permit, or consulting the Israel Antiquities Authority.
While details of the investigation remain unclear, police said the relics — which also included basalt stones for grinding wheat, as well as multiple water and oil jars from the Bar Kokhba Revolt, Assyrian Empire, Roman and Byzantine periods — were confiscated.
The suspect, who was arraigned shortly after his arrest, claimed that he did not sell the cache, but rather kept it for his private collection.
Antiquities theft in Israel is punishable by up to three years in prison, according to the IAA.
Is it just me or does the “antique” in the foreground look like a gun!