Sweden returns 2,000 year old shroud to Peru

A Paracas textile calendar at the National Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology and History of Peru
A Paracas textile calendar at the National Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology and History of Peru
SEBASTIAN CASTAYEDA/AP

A set of extremely rare textiles has been returned to Peru, more than eight decades after they were smuggled out of the country by a Swedish diplomat.

The items were handed back to the country after an agreement with musuem authorities in Gothenburg last year.

Among the highlights are a 2000-year-old intricately coloured pre-Incan funeral shroud, measuring 41 inches by 21 inches (104 centimeters by 53 centimeters).

It was among 88 other textiles donated to a museum in Gothenburg in the early 1930s by Sven Karell, the Swedish consul.

He had secreted them out of Peru following their discovery in the Paracas Peninsula, a desert south of Lima where the extremely dry climate helped to protect the Alpaca wool fibres.

Despite being 2,000 years old,