TEHRAN – Iranian authorities have confiscated seven prehistoric objects, which are estimated to date back to Achaemenid times, from smugglers in Rudan county, Hormozgan province, southern Iran. 

After [days of] intelligence operations, seven sculptures were seized from two individuals who were arrested following a vehicle pursuit, ISNA quoted Abbasali Behdanifard, a provincial police commander, as saying.

Cultural heritage experts are assessing that the objects worth some seven billion rials (around $165,000), he explained. 

The Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BC) was the largest and most durable empire of its time, stretching from Ethiopia, through Egypt, to Greece, to Anatolia (modern Turkey), Central Asia and to India.

AFM/MG