Spain returns artefacts to Peru

The artefacts were among hundreds assembled by a collector

Spain has returned some 243 priceless artefacts to Peru, more than a decade after they came to light at an exhibition in north-western Spain.

The objects were among hundreds of pieces exhibited in 1997 by a private collector, who still claims ownership of them.

They date from before the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492.

Spain says it has invited Latin American countries to claim the objects - but that only Peru has done so.

Recovered in Germany

The items, including golden necklaces and rings containing precious stones, and earthenware and metalwork pieces, were displayed in 1997 in an exhibition by Costa Rican collector Leonardo Patterson.

Leonardo Patterson denies doing anything wrong

Investigators have valued them at more than $100m (£57m), the Associated Press reports.

The Spanish authorities said he was not the rightful owner and offered to return the pieces to Latin America, if governments there laid a claim to them.

Some pieces were seized, following a claim by Peru, but others remained in a warehouse until Mr Patterson tried to move them to Germany, where they were recovered by German police.

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They include more than 1,000 items, from the Aztec, Maya, Olmec and Inca cultures. Mexico, Peru and Costa Rica are among the countries looking into the collection.

Mr Patterson, 66, maintains he has done nothing wrong and says he assembled the collection legally from several other collectors.

"All of that stuff, I got it in Europe. I don't traffic pieces," he told the AP.