Troy historical artifacts back in Turkey

Culture and Tourism Minister announced yesterday that twenty-four pieces of jewelry comprising earrings, necklaces, diadems, bracelets and pendants, unearthed at the ancient city of Troy and kept in the American Penn Museum since 1966, were returned to Turkey. These Troy artifacts had become famous with the Illiad and discovered during the Ottoman period. In the scope of the project of returning historical artifacts which were taken out of Turkey via illegal ways, Gunay said that they had been receiving positive results and that between the years of 1993-2003, a total of 869 artifacts were brought back to Turkey and between 2003-2007, thousand pieces were returned and since September 2007 until today, 3 thousand 336 artifacts reached Turkey. "These pieces have such importance.  They are originated from Troy, which we can call the 'Istanbul of ancient ages’ in a sense. City of Troy was destroyed nine times and but it was rebuilt. These artifacts are said to have belonged to the second period of Troy. They were unearthed during excavations carried out by the German archaeologist Schliemann. Many artifacts had been looted during this period and were smuggled to different parts of the world. Some of these artifacts were in Germany, and then went to Russia at the time of the war. Some are currently on display at the Pushkin Museum. We’ve put forth a great effort to get them back," Gunay said at a press conference held yesterday at the Anatolian Civilizations Museum in Ankara.