A conservator inspects a Libyan heritage piece, highlighting efforts to preserve Africa’s ancient cultural artifacts.
Libyan authorities have recovered a large bronze wolf statue that once sat atop a pillar in central Benghazi before disappearing decades ago, found on a farm whose owner said he bought the sculpture as scrap. Authorities were alerted to the colonial-era statue after a tip off and discovered it in a farm near Benghazi belonging to Saied Mohammed Bourabida, who told them he had bought it from a metal yard because he liked the way it looked. Italian colonial authorities erected the statue in the new Benghazi city centre they were building in the 1930s, promoting a connection between ancient Roman settlement of Libya and their modern colonial rule over the country.