ART-GREECE-RESTITUTION – TELAM Agency
A total of 351 looted Greek antiquities dating from the Neolithic to Byzantine times will be returned to Greece, the Greek Ministry of Culture announced after a 17-year legal battle.
Divided into 25 lots, the antiquities were in the possession of British art dealer Robin Symes, whose company, Robin Symes Limited, is in the process of being wound up, according to a statement.
Significant pieces in the antiquities collection include a Neolithic-era figurine carved from white stone and dating to 4,000 BC, a Cycladic figurine dating to between 3,200 and 2,700 BC, a damaged marble statue of a Kore, from 550-500 BC, and a fragmentary bronze statue depicting a young Alexander the Great, from the second half of the 2nd century.
The Greek Minister of Culture, Lina Mendoni, reported that the legal battle to recover these pieces had lasted 17 years, within the framework of a policy in which Greece fights to recover its works of art and antiquities that have been looted and are scattered throughout museums and private collections around the world, reported the AFP news agency.
Three fragments of the Parthenon guarded by the Vatican for more than two centuries were returned to Greece in March, a gesture of friendship according to Pope Francis.
Fragments of that monument are scattered in various museums around the world, but above all, Greece is aiming for the return of the friezes from the Parthenon of Athens that are in the British Museum in London.
London claims the sculptures were “lawfully acquired” in 1802 by British diplomat Lord Elgin, who later resold them to the museum, but Greece maintains they were “plundered” while the country was under Ottoman occupation.
Source: Ambito
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