New York - The United States has returned 11 cultural
artefacts to the government of Nigeria. Authorities
said on Thursday that French customs officials tipped off the US in April 2010
about a shipment headed to New York's Kennedy Airport. The 10 Nok (nahk) statues and a carved tusk were
seized from a Manhattan gallery owner, and an investigation determined they
were bona fide antiquities. The artefacts are to be displayed in Nigeria's
national museum. Nok statues are
about 2 000 to 2 500 years old, among the oldest sculptures in West Africa.
They were first unearthed in 1943 at a tin mine near the village of Nok in
central Nigeria. Homeland Security
investigators say two Nok statues and a carved ivory tusk were previously
seized at Chicago O'Hare International Airport.