article_snippet: It was to help him rule in the case of an ancient statue which is said to have be smuggled out of war-torn Libya.
article_snippet: ‘definitely’ excavated illegally from the ancient Greek colony of Cyrene – once known as the Athens of Africa.
article_snippet: It is said to have been smuggled out of Libya via Dubai in 2011 before being discovered by UK customs officials two years later.
article_snippet: Libya has been plagued by looting and cultural vandalism since the fall of Colonel Gaddaffi in 2011, with the resulting power vacuum effectively ending the state-sponsored preservation of the country’s multiple Greek and Roman sites.
article_snippet: he said: ‘I believe the statue was definitely made in Libya, in Cyrenaica’, adding the statue was extremely rare.
highlights_snippet: Marble statue is said to have been looted from a site in Libya .
  