BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - 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. Bourabida, 80, kept the statue, a replica of the famous Capitoline Wolf sculpture that depicts a legendary scene of ancient Rome, in plain view under a spreading tree next to the terrace of his house. 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. However, many priceless Libyan antiquities have disappeared: pillaged by Europeans in colonial times, appropriated after independence or looted in the chaos that has followed a 2011 NATO-backed uprising. Khaled al-Hadar, a Libyan researcher on stolen antiquities, said heritage monitoring remained weak in Libya and had not been started until 1974 - after the wolf had disappeared.
