BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) Romanian authorities have put on display 145 Dacian gold coins minted two millennia ago and returned by Britain after they were stolen from a historical site in Transylvania.
National History Musem curator Ernest Tarnoveanu-Oberman said Friday the coins are part of the national heritage.
Dacians were the forefathers of modern-day Romanians and lived in a region in the heart of Transylvania.
"They are a testament of our identity that we've been here for 2,000 years," said Foreign Minister Titus Corlatean. Authorities worked for three years to get the coins returned. A Romanian man will face trial over the theft.
In the past decade, organized crime networks have plundered Dacian artifacts from an archaeological site and smuggled them abroad. Authorities have also recovered artifacts from the U.S., France, Switzerland, and Germany.
