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Looted Ancient Relics Return to Greek Soil After Lengthy Legal Tussle

© AFP 2023 / LOUISA GOULIAMAKIThis photograph taken in Athens on February 8, 2022 shows a rainbow appearing over the Ancient Acropolis.
This photograph taken in Athens on February 8, 2022 shows a rainbow appearing over the Ancient Acropolis. - Sputnik International, 1920, 21.05.2023
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Greece's recent recovery of ancient artefacts comes against the protracted legal ownership tug-of-war between the UK’s British Museum and the Greek government regarding the fate of the "Elgin Marbles" - Parthenon carvings, which were removed from the Acropolis over 200 years ago.
A batch of ancient artefacts spanning historical periods from the Neolithic to Byzantine era are being repatriated to Greece after a 17-year-long legal battle, Greek Culture Minister Lina Mendoni announced on Friday.
The 351 antiquities in question include a white stone Neolithic-era statuette dating to the 4th millennium BC, an Early Cycladic figurine from between 3200 and 2700 BC, a bronze statue of Alexander the Great from the second half of the 2nd century AD.
Without going into any specific details, Mendoni hailed the joint efforts by Culture Ministry officials, the legal department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the country’s judiciary, and archaeologists to wrest the vast collection from the company of a UK antiquities dealer - Robin Symes Limited - which is undergoing liquidation at the moment.
Symes is said to have put together the collection with the help of a sweeping network of illegal traders.
The current repatriation comes after back in 2006 an investigation was launched into the company owned by the now-disgraced British antiquities' dealer. Acting in close cooperation, Italian and Swiss police in 2016 recovered archaeological artefacts, from Symes’ possession, found to have been stolen from Italy. Symes, once a famous London dealer in artefacts, was suspected of being in cahoots at the time with Italian tomb raiders. There has not been any clarification from Mendoni whether the batch of items coming home to Greece now is somehow linked to that discovery at the Geneva Freeport warehouse complex.
Two sections of marble frieze sculptures (438-432 BC) from the Parthenon in Athens, part of the collection referred to as the Elgin Marbles, are displayed in central London on March 24, 2015.  - Sputnik International, 1920, 05.01.2023
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Greece has been on a crusade to return looted artefacts across the globe. The most high-profile artworks in this case are the Parthenon Sculptures. Originally part of the temple of the Parthenon at the Acropolis in Athens, they were removed by British diplomat Lord Elgin during the Turkish occupation in 1802. They were brought to Britain and are now on display in the British Museum in London. The UK has long argued that Elgin was given permission to take them by local Ottoman rulers. Greece has consistently demanded the return of the sculptures on display in the British Museum, claiming they are "the product of theft." The campaign to return the artworks continue. Meanwhile, at a reunification ceremony in Athens, three fragments of the Parthenon were brought to the Greek capital and its Acropolis Museum from the Vatican.
A woman takes a pictures of a newly placed male head on the frieze of the Acropolis museum during a ceremony for the repatriation of three sculpture fragments, in Athens, Friday, March 24, 2023. - Sputnik International, 1920, 25.03.2023
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Vatican Returns Three Fragments of Parthenon to Greece
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