Guatemalan officials have seized more than a thousand pre-Hispanic Mayan artifacts from two Americans arrested in the Central American country for archaeological trafficking, the public prosecutor’s office said Thursday.
The pair, Stephanie Allison Jolluck, 49, and Giorgio Salvador Rossilli, 62, were arrested on Sunday with some 166 allegedly stolen heritage pieces, according to officials.
More artifacts were found in a search of their home in the city of Antigua Guatemala near the capital, the prosecutor’s office said.
Investigators found “722 pieces of various sizes and materials, such as jade and basalt,” as well as 500 stone pieces “of small dimensions,” it added.
Jolluck had initially been arrested last Friday for trying to leave Guatemala with two Mayan artifacts. She was released on bail, only to be caught again two days later with Rossilli in an anti-trafficking operation.
Both are out on bail but are prohibited from leaving the country.
The Mayan civilization reached its height between 250 and 900 AD in a territory that spans present-day southern Mexico and Guatemala, as well as parts of Belize, El Salvador and Honduras.
