Egypt displays ancient artifacts recovered from smugglers

Visitors look at the lid of a wooden coffin that was confiscated by the Italian police months ago, and returned to Egypt, at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Egypt, Wednesday, July 4, 2018. (AP / Amr Nabil)

CAIRO -- Egypt has put on display ancient artifacts recently retrieved from Italy after they were confiscated by the Italian police months ago.

Sabah Abdel-Razek, the general director of the Egyptian Museum, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the artifacts include five burial masks, 11 vessels, 151 small statutes and over 20,000 coins from different eras.

Egyptian authorities have said the artifacts were likely excavated and smuggled out of the country in secret, as no museum has records of them.

Egypt says it has retrieved around 1,000 artifacts from 10 different countries over the past two years.