A process for recovering silver from a mass of scrap of photovoltaic cells. The process includes steps of: providing the scrap of photovoltaic cells, each including a silicon wafer on the upper surface of which an anti-reflective layer and silver lines are provided; immersing the scrap in water or in an aqueous solution; applying ultrasound to cause the silver to detach; sieving the solution to remove the coarse solid fraction containing the silicon wafer residue; and separating the fine solid fraction containing the silver from the solution.