Gendarmerie units in Istanbul seized a cache of 8,582 historical artifacts believed to date back to the Byzantine, Roman and Ottoman periods during an operation targeting a parked vehicle in the Sancaktepe district.
Four suspects were detained, one of whom was later arrested and remanded in custody. Prosecutors have filed an indictment seeking up to five years in prison on charges of violating the Law on Protection of Cultural and Natural Assets.
A search of the vehicle uncovered a vast collection of items, including coins from the Byzantine, Medieval, Roman and Islamic periods, bronze animal and human figurines, pendants, rings, beads, a cross necklace, various figures in liturgical and allegorical forms alongside various archaeological objects.
A preliminary expert report determined that 8,581 of the seized items fall under protected archaeological and ethnographic artifacts, with only one identified as a replica.
Prosecutors underscored that the scale and nature of the collection indicate clear commercial intent.
In their statements, the suspects denied wrongdoing, offering varying accounts of how the items were obtained. One suspect claimed he found the objects in a sack near a lakeside and sought expert evaluation, with another saying they had gathered out of curiosity to inspect the items.
Authorities, however, maintain that the evidence supports charges of illicit cultural property trade.
