Breaking News English

Police from around the world have worked together to find [load / lots] of missing art. The detectives were from Interpol, Europol and many national police [forces / force] . The World Customs Organization also helped [at / with] the search. The police officers found more than 19,000 items [or / of] artwork. These include an ancient Colombian gold mask that is [more / over] 600 years old. There was also a [curbed / carved] Roman lion, centuries-old jewellery, and thousands of ancient coins. Many of the [items / item] the police recovered were stolen from museums and archaeological sites. A lot of [that / them] were taken from countries at war. The thieves took cultural treasures while countries were [in / on] a mess because of fighting civil wars or wars against [other / another] countries.

The police arrested 101 art [traffic / traffickers] around the world. The art [thieves / thief] were from Spain, Colombia, Latvia, Afghanistan and Turkey. Interpol said they spent a long [time / timing] monitoring online marketplaces to find the art [end / and] the thieves. Interpol's secretary-general Jürgen Stock spoke to journalists [for / about] how big the operation was. He said: "The number of arrests and objects shows the [index / scale] and global reach of the illicit trade [on / in] cultural artefacts, where every country with a rich heritage is a [possibly / potential] target." Interpol added: "Organised crime has many faces. The trafficking of cultural goods is [one / once] of them. It is not a glamorous business [run / walked] by flamboyant gentlemen forgers, but by international criminal networks."