Off-duty Italian art squad police officers find looted statue in Belgian shop

Carabinieri officers of the art squad’s archaeological unit pose with a headless Roman statue wearing a draped toga in Brussels (Carabinieri via AP)

Italian police said they have recovered a 1st century Roman statue that was stolen from an archaeological site in 2011 and found in a Belgian antiques shop by two off-duty Italian art squad police officers.

An Italian businessman who used a Spanish pseudonym has been referred to prosecutors for further investigation into allegations he received and then exported the statue abroad, the Carabinieri art squad said in a statement.