By request of the Tirana Prosecution, the Court of Tirana suspended the
Director of the National Center of Cultural Asset Inventory, Izet
Duraku.
The decision about another expert of this directory, Meliha Ramaliu, will be issued this Wednesday, since she has asked to be represented by a defensive lawyer.
The Prosecution suspects that the employees have violated the rules, since many of the stolen objects have been certified illegally. The Prosecution says that among the illegally certified objects is “iconostasi”, brought by collector Gjergji Thimio and certified by Meliha Ramaliu with the authorization of Director Duraku.
This object was bought in 1997 to be trafficked to Greece by a person from Gjirokaster. Another important icon brought by Gjergji Thimo has been certified by Meliha Ramaliu and authorized by Director Izet Duraku.
According to the prosecution, the second icon was bought by some people who wanted to traffic it to Italy and then Greece. The same fate has been for the other icons. The actions of the suspected employees have brought serious consequences, since many of these objects do not exist anymore.
There are 78 icons in total which have been certified by Gjergji Thimo and then disappeared.
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