France Returns 25,000 Seized Archaeological Artifacts to Morocco

The minister stressed during this presentation that "all these archaeological, heritage and geological pieces are first and foremost intended to be available to Moroccan students, especially those from the National Institute of Archaeology and Heritage (INSAP), the academic world, researchers and the general public." Morocco, he said, due to its position and the richness of its cultural heritage, is the target of many criminal organizations and illicit trafficking, seeking to recover these cultural goods to finance terrorism or for money laundering.

During the ceremony, the French Ambassador to Rabat, Hélène Le Gal, confided that it was important that these thousands of vestiges from the most distant times finally regain their territory, in accordance with the commitments made by France and Morocco under the 1970 UNESCO Geneva Convention. "This remarkable restitution first testifies to a joint will of the French and Moroccan authorities to fight against the illicit trafficking of cultural property, this scourge that deprives peoples of a heritage to which all should have access," she said.

The pieces recovered by Morocco are divided into four categories in the form of geological heritage (minerals, flora, fossil fauna, trilobites, ammonites dated from the Cretaceous period from −145 to −66 million years, crocodile and turtle skulls and thousands of fish teeth). As for the second category, it is composed of archaeological objects that include prehistoric tools from the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods such as bifaces, blades, arrowheads and rock carvings.

The third category contains an ethnographic collection composed of pottery containers and millstones. The last and fourth category includes craft works made from geological fossils, including ammonites and orthoceres, and many others.