8,000-year-old bull looted from Ukraine one of world’s most-wanted artefacts

A tiny bone figurine, taken during the siege of Mariupol, is now on the Antiquities Coalition’s global most-wanted list

Deborah Lehr as featured on The Times

An 8,000-year-old Neolithic bull figurine that vanished during the devastating Russian siege of Mariupol in Ukraine has been named one of the world’s ten most wanted looted artefacts.

The palm-sized bull, carved from bone in about 6,000BC by early settlers along the Azov Sea, was probably used as a toy or ritual object.

It disappeared from the Mariupol Museum of Local Lore in 2022, when the building was damaged and much of its collection lost or looted during months of bombardment and eventual occupation.