Argentina has returned several-thousand stolen cultural heritage items to museums in Ecuador and Peru – one of the largest recoveries in South American history.

Marking the newly-signed Agreement for the Protection, Conservation, Recovery and Return of Stolen or Illegally Exported or Transferred Cultural, Archaeological, Artistic and Historical Property, 4,150 cultural heritage items were returned to Peru, while 438 pieces were returned to Ecuador.

Among the historical artefacts, pre-Colombian goods, metals, textiles, wood, pottery, bone remains and organic fibre were all recovered. Of the total, 3,898 were seized from art collectors and traffickers in Buenos Aires in the year 2000.

In the past two years, Ecuador has recovered some 15,000 cultural objects stolen from the country at different times. In South America, smuggling cultural property is heavily connected with organised crime, with the continent’s governments unifying to combat the problem.

"We are doing something unusual, really special," said former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, speaking during a ceremony at the National Museum of Fine Art in Buenos Aires last year. "It is an honour and a pleasure to restore the cultural wealth of countries such as Ecuador and Peru in a world where such wealth has so often been taken away."