After months of negotiations, the museum finally recovered the ancient artifact that had been smuggled abroad.

recovered 是动词 recover 的过去式。recover 由前缀 re-（表示"重新"）和 cover（覆盖、获得）组成，字面意思是"重新获得"，引申为"找回、恢复"的意思。在这里指博物馆通过努力重新获得了被盗的文物。