In just the first three months of this 2018, the Costa Rica Investigative Police (OIJ) and the National Museum recovered 266 archaeological pieces.

Alejandro Fernandez, investigator of OIJ, stated “These pieces are put on sale by collectors through websites and even through Facebook groups“; Fernandez confirmed that the number of pieces recovered so far is already higher than the total number recovered in 2017 which was of only 222. In 2016 only 188 were seized.

Between February and March, OIJ conducted a search operation in houses in Curridabat and La Sabana where they confiscated 91 and 137 pieces respectively. While one of the suspects was just a collected the other, a foreigner living in Curridabat, was selling the pieces online, the majority of the same were sculpt by native Costa Rican indigenous, and have, therefore, historic importance and are considered of very high value.

Many of the pieces are sold out of the country, particularly in Europe where foreigners will pay high amounts for original pieces.\

Among the pieces recovered last year, there were 196 Pre-Columbian pieces mainly made of stone and others in ceramic which were part of Costa Rica’s archeaological treasure and that had been taken out of the country to Venezuela illegally, the shipment arrived in Costa Rica at the end of 2017.