Alert customs authorities recovered 194 pieces of authentic pre-Colombian artifacts at the Miami airport. Last March, according to an article in yesterday?s Miami Herald and carried in the Diario Libre and other Dominican papers, a customs official confiscated 408 pieces of pre-Colombian artifacts from the luggage of a passenger coming from the Dominican Republic. The authorities consulted with archaeologist Elpidio Jose Ortega, who certified that 194 of the pieces were, indeed, bona fide and that one of the pieces dated back to 2,500 years before Christ. The person carrying the artifacts has not been identified, and US authorities are conducting an investigation as to who the pieces really belong to. While the initial questioning of the artifacts began in March, it was not until just recently that the officials called in the Dominican scientist. Diario Libre reporter Hector Marte Perez interviewed Ortega, who said that he had gone to Miami after the US State Department issued a request to the DR?s Museum of the Dominican Man. Ortega said that the authentic pieces were of a great cultural value.