Athens News Agency: News in English, 09-05-19
CONTENTS
[01] Antiquities returned to Greece
[01] Antiquities returned to Greece
Culture Minister Antonis Samaras on Tuesday addressed a special event
held at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens to mark the return
of hundreds of ancient artifacts to Greece by Belgium, Germany and the
United Kingdom.
The majority of the antiquities on display dated from the 5th to the
2nd centuries BC, apart from a section of a Byzantine-era carved window
sill or architectural element dating from the 11th-12th century AD,
possibly from the Plaka area in Athens, that was presented to the Greek
Embassy in London by a private citizen.
The artifacts returned by Belgium were handed over by the Belgian
School of Athens, while those from Germany are believed to originate
from a Hellenistic-era graveyard in Thessaly and were found and
confiscated by German customs authorities in Nuremberg in May 2007,
inside a truck from Greece.
Noting that the items had found their way back to Greece through both
voluntary private initiatives and organised state intervention, Samaras
said that this reflected a change in attitudes.
"Today, societies are coming to realise more and more that cultural
goods are not just works of art and creations of a specific historic
moment but valuable links in the historic identity and continuity of
peoples," he said.
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