Six antiques that were stolen from the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in June this year have all been recovered in Poland, The Sunday Mail reported.

An official at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, who preferred anonymity, was quoted as saying that the antiques had been recovered in good condition. She could not say when the antiques would be returning home.

"We are delighted and impressed with the people who managed to trace the artifacts. The gallery will definitely reinforce security measures so that there will not be a repeat of such thefts," she said.

"This will send a message to world dealers that we will do all we can to recover any stolen antiques. Apparently, we are targeted by world dealers as we have the most valuable antiques that bring in large sums of money when sold outside the country," said she.

According to the Museum Security Network website, a seller in Poland offered the stolen antiques to a collector in the USA five weeks ago.

The collector immediately contacted Ton Cremers, an international security consultant, because the objects were similar to the ones published on the MSN website.

The authorities were informed and the Polish police arrested the thief.

Cremers said this is one great example where international cooperation managed to beat a cross-border criminal.

He said that the assistance came solely from the Africa security network, which was set up to curb theft of antiques in museums.

Source: Xinhua