Heritage
Flanders has returned three gold Celtic bracelets to Romania. It was long thought that the jewelry was of Flemish origin, until archaeological research revealed its real origin.
The three-thousand-year-old bracelets turned up four years ago at an auction in Monaco, where they had an asking price of 80,000 to 100,000 euros.
According to the owner and the auction house, they came from Flanders, ‘found’ in a canal in Houtem, West Flanders, but archaeological experts questioned this. Never before have similar jewelry been found so far west in Europe, such bracelets were traditionally made in the Eastern Carpathians in present-day Romania. The owner is said to have acquired them by trading an antique hunting rifle for them.
To prevent them from being auctioned outside Flanders, Flemish Prime Minister Jan Jambon had them protected as masterpieces to be on the safe side.
Now judicial investigation shows that the bracelets do not come from Flanders, but were found during an illegal excavation in Romania. A ceremonial handover took place on Monday in the Antwerp MAS, during which Jambon returned the bracelets to a Romanian delegation.
Now they are once again part of the Romanian national heritage. An investigation into the exact origin is still ongoing in Romania.
