National Police have arrested four people for the theft of items of incalculable value which had been pillaged from first and fourth century tombs in Córdoba.

National Police have arrested four people for the theft of items of incalculable value which had been pillaged from first and fourth century tombs in Córdoba.

Some of them come from the necropolis recovered in a private estate in the town of Aguilar de la Frontera, Córdoba, which came to light after the floods of last August. At the time the Junta de Andalucía decided to cover up the site, to better conserve the remains and in an attempt to stop any depredations.

El Mundo reports that the pieces which have now been recovered had been taken from the Provincial Cultural Delegation warehouses belonging to the Junta de Andalucía, where they were being kept while a decision on their future was being taken.

Among those arrested is a Belgian-Lebanese man, who took the base of a column from the Medina Azahara in Córdoba, dating from the Omeya Caliphate out of the country, to then sell it at Christie’s auction house in London for some 150,000 €. It was the sale of that item which led the police to start their investigations. The man was located with the help of Interpol and arrested in Marbella on charges of contraband.

The man who sold the base to the Belgian man, an antique dealer in Ronda, has also been arrested. The dealer knew people who could supply such valuable items. 

Other items now recovered include a late Roman mosaic, Neolithic axes, Roman projectiles, an Oniokoe, and more than 300 Arab and Roman coins taken from the necropolis in Aguilar de la Frontera.