ROME: A marble sculpture of the head of Rome’s first emperor was welcomed back to the Italian capital on Tuesday, some 40 years after it was stolen and trafficked out of the country.

The portrayal of Augustus, one of the earliest known depictions of a man born more than 2,000 years ago, is the latest artefact from Italy’s ancient sites to be repatriated after being illegally smuggled abroad.

The phenomenon became so widespread that Italy set up a police unit dedicated to tracing the pieces.

“Today we don’t just have the retrieval,” Deputy Foreign Minister Mario Giro said at a ceremony to mark the return of the artwork.

“We are celebrating the importance the memories of these artefacts have for the future of humanity.” The 45 centimetre-tall veiled head, whose hairstyle shows it dates to the period before the young Octavius became emperor and took the name Augustus in around 27 B.C., had been on display in the Cinquantenaire Museum in Brussels.

Published in Dawn, June 15th, 2016