German Government Returns 8,000-Year-Old Artifacts to Greece

By Sebastian Kontovounissios

Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Germany returned a total of 94 stolen objects
dating back as far 6000 B.C. to the Greek government, ending more than
20 years of legal wrangling.

The Neolithic-age items, mostly clay and marble idols, were stolen from
a private collection in Larissa, central Greece, in 1985, Culture
Minister Mihalis Liapis said in a news conference in Athens today.
German police seized them a year later after a smuggler ring tried to
sell them to a museum in Munich, he said.

The objects, including primitive weaponry, tools and busts from finds in
central Greece, had been stored at a court facility in Bamberg, Bavaria,
and some were put on display at the news conference to mark their
repatriation.

The successful return of the treasure is part of a broader campaign of
countries such as Greece and Italy to crack down on the illicit
antiquities trade. ``The illicit trade of antiquities is a curse that
steals from the cultural heritage of nations,'' Liapis said.

A Munich court in August 2007 ruled in favor of a Greek request to
repatriate the objects, and they returned to Greece on Oct. 19.
Constantine Theodoropoulos, the Greek collector who owned the items,
donated them to the country's government and they will put be on display
at the Larissa museum.