Albania returns 20 stolen icons to neighboring North Macedonia

By LLAZAR SEMINI
Associated Press

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Albania has returned 20 icons to neighboring North Macedonia, which were stolen a decade ago. The return on Friday marked the final stretch on a long, 10-year road with “much inter-institutional and international cooperation.” Albania’s Culture Minister Elva Margariti said at the handover ceremony in the capital of Tirana that it also showed Albania’s commitment to “the fight against trafficking of the cultural inheritance objects.” In 2013, Albanian authorities in Tirana seized more than 1,000 stolen religious and secular pieces of art dating from the 15th to the mid-20th century and arrested two men suspected of planning to sell them abroad.