Italy on Tuesday handed over some 40 medieval artefacts to Iran as part of its drive to make sure antiquities return to their rightful owners.
The bowls, broaches, lamps, inscriptions and coins range from the 10th to the 15th century.
Italian art police found them at a northern Italian antiques fair, labelled as ''objects from Thailand''.
They said they had probably come from illicit digs - as had some 90 artefacts from the same fair which were returned to Pakistan two months ago.
Almost 200 other objects found there, believed to have come from the Middle East and Central Asia, are still being examined by experts.
Italian Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli and Iran's ambassador to Italy, Abolfazl Zohrevand, signed documents at a press conference at the culture ministry officially returning the 41 items to Tehran.
The two officials recalled numerous joint cultural projects including a dig which recently found a mummified body of a priestess with a golden eye.
At the same time as it returns looted objects found on its territory, Rutelli noted, Italy has successfully obtained plundered Greek and Roman antiquities from four top US museums and is seeking others from Cleveland, Denmark and Japan.
