By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
An ancient headdress - considered one of Peru's most prized artifacts and missing for more than two decades since being looted from an archaeological dig - was recovered in a raid on a London law firm, police said Thursday.
Specialist art detectives seized the antiquity from the central London firm after a lengthy investigation into stolen goods, London's Metropolitan police said.
The centuries-old artifact - fashioned from a sheet of embossed gold, with a feline face at its center and eight curving tentacles - is estimated to be worth over 1 million pounds (US$1.9 million), experts said.
Made in the image of an ancient sea god and said to date back to 700, the gold headdress is a prized example of artwork by the Mochica civilization of northern Peru, police said.