Italy's return of treasures a long time in the making

Nearly 800 artifacts smuggled from China will finally set off for home this month after they were first noticed by an Italian gendarmerie unit 12 years ago, and they will be an exemplar of Italian authorities' achievements in the battle against artifacts smuggling.

The batch of Chinese artifacts was noticed by a unit of Carabinieri, or the national gendarmerie of Italy, focusing on the protection of cultural heritage, in 2007, when a television auction program was looking to sell items from a large trove of ancient Asian cultural and historical artifacts.

"There was a tip that the items being offered for sale were illegally smuggled out of China," lieutenant colonel Valerio Marra, commander of the Carabinieri unit for Rome, says. "So officials were sent in to investigate and they ended up seizing 796 artifacts."