LONDON (AP).- British police say they have recovered two Chinese artifacts valued together at more than 2 million pounds ($3.2 million) that were stolen from a university museum earlier this month.

Raiders chiseled through a wall to snatch the Qing Dynasty items from the Oriental Museum at Durham University in northern England on April 5.

Police soon arrested several suspects, but the items — a large jade bowl with a Chinese poem written inside that dates back to 1769, and a Dehua porcelain sculpture — were not immediately recovered.

Durham Police said Saturday that both artifacts had been retrieved, though it did not say how.

Police have named two men they are searching for over the raid — Lee Wildman and Adrian Stanton, both from the West Midlands area of central England.

The Oriental Museum is currently undergoing a major redevelopment project. This will involve the closure and complete redisplay of many of the galleries over the next 4-5 years. Work on the Egypt and China galleries has now been completed. During 2012/13 work will be getting underway on the Japan, South and South East Asia and Islamic World gallleries. We are trying to keep as much of the museum open and accessible to visitors during this work but it will involve some closures and disruption.


Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.