Greece has secured a complex deal for the return of 161 ancient Greek artefacts from the collection of a US billionaire after Athens had conceded there was no evidence that it had been illegally excavated and exported.
Most of the pieces are marble works that date from 5300- 2200 BC and are from the Early Bronze Age Cycladic civilization whose elegantly abstract but enigmatic marble figurines inspired artists from Pablo Picasso to Constantin Bancrusi.
These pieces are usually highly prized by collectors and museums which has recently begun a wave of illegal excavations in Greece – and countless forgeries.
Greece’s parliament approved the agreement with the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, a top Athens museum and a Delaware-based cultural institution to which the pieces will be transferred to over the coming years.
As part of the deal, it was agreed that the works will stagger their return to Greece from 2033-2048, after being displayed in the MET during the same time period.
Culture Minister, Lina Mendoni described the pieces as masterpieces of unique value, both archaeological and scientifically, that Greece is getting without a messy court battle.
“They won’t return tomorrow.. But they will (gradually) return,” Mendoni said.
“This collection was completely unknown to the ministry.”
Most of the pieces in the collection are typical, broad-faced, flat-white marble statues depicting nude women with folded arms, although there are definitely some interesting and unusual type sculptures as well. In addition there are marble bowls, vases, a terracotta frying-pan shaped dish and a pair of bracelets.
Minister Mendoni also explained that the ministry had no evidence that the artefacts were illegally exported from Greece, even though it was something they knew, there was no way to prove it.
“A legal effort to claim the collection was estimated to have minimal chances of success, and would not have secured the return of all 161 antiquities,” she added.
“And we want them all repatriated.”
Source: AP News
