BUDAPEST, July 12 (Xinhua) -- Hungary was able to recover the missing parts of the famous medieval Seuso treasure, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced in an extraordinary press conference on Wednesday.
Laszlo Ban, director of the Museum of Fine Arts, shed more light on the findings at the Hungarian parliament, where the treasure is on display.
The silver goods are close to 2,000 years old and originate from the Roman Empire. The treasure was very likely the possession of an ancient Roman noble who lived in Pannonia (present day western Hungary), and buried the treasure under the ground fearing the intrusion of barbarian tribes. It has been buried for close to 2,000 years, Ban explained.
After the 1970s, it vanished from Hungary under illegal circumstances before having been seen in New York, the United States, in 1990.
Since 1990, every Hungarian government attempted to recover the treasure through lawsuits or agreements. "We succeeded in two steps: the first seven pieces of the treasure were retrieved in 2014, and now, the second, even more valuable part got back home," Ban said, "Now, the complete Seuso treasure is in Hungary."
He said Hungary paid 15 million euros (17.11 million U.S. dollars) for the first part and 28 million euros for the second part of the treasure. According to Ban, the market value of the treasure might be three or four times higher than its purchase price.
