Another item being offered for sale in Denmark features a set of medicine bottles dating back to the 18th century and likely to fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars on the black market. An original version of the Quran, like the one pictured in police footage, may potentially generate millions of dollars.
"The items are indeed very valuable and if proven authentic, they are clearly part of the cultural heritage," Nibal Muhesen, a professor at the University of Copenhagen's Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, told Danish Radio.
"It is obvious that auction houses, art dealers and even we ourselves [museums] have become much more aware of where these things are coming from and whether they have a clean background for us to determine if the items were part of the international art trade long before the wars broke out in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, respectively" Joachim Meyer told Danish Radio.
Danish police expressed doubt that the items are physically in Denmark. Instead, they believe it's only the photos of the loot that are circulating on the Danish black market.
Denmark has been participating in the US-led coalition's operations in Syria since April 2016. In December 2016, Copenhagen resolved to pull its fighter jets out of Syria after an accidental airstrike against the Syrian army soldiers last fall, having mistaken them for Daesh jihadists. In mid-January 2017, Denmark agreed to bolster its Syrian force with 60 special troops and a frigate operating jointly with a US aircraft carrier. As a dutiful NATO member, Denmark participated in all the recent conflicts involving the alliance, such as the Iraqi war and the Libyan conflict.
