Agency Report

Two Dutch citizens have returned 17 Mexican archaeological artefacts after three decades in their possession, the foreign ministry said in a statement Sunday.

The return of the artefacts comes as Mexico works to recover thousands of archeological pieces that had been illegally removed from the country — 6,000 have come back so far, according to official figures.

Hubert De Boer and Liesebeth Mellis, who had been in possession of the items for 30 years, handed over the clay pieces during a ceremony at the Mexican embassy in the Netherlands.

It’s not clear how the two came into possession of the objects, which include a few small human figurines and which were made between the years 400 and 1521.