Greece has handed over six terracotta statuettes to Egyptian authorities, repatriating artefacts believed to have been illegally exported from Egypt and discovered eight years ago discarded in a rubbish skip in an Athens suburb.
The Culture Ministry said the pieces were delivered to Egypt’s ambassador in Athens, Omar Amer Youssef, at a handover ceremony at the National Archaeological Museum.
The statuettes were allegedly found by a passer-by wrapped individually in a paper bag, abandoned among rubbish in a skip in Peristeri, a western Athens suburb, before being brought to the museum for examination.
Museum experts who inspected the works determined that two of the six were fakes. Both the apparently genuine pieces and the forgeries are being returned to Egypt together, the ministry said.
Culture Minister Lina Mendoni, who attended Wednesday’s ceremony, described the repatriation as “an act of respect” toward the principle of cultural heritage.
The Egyptian ambassador thanked Greece for what he called the “valuable artefacts.”
The case adds to a string of recent antiquities repatriations involving Greece, which has stepped up cooperation with foreign governments and museums in recent years to track and return looted or illegally trafficked cultural property, while simultaneously pressing its own long-running campaign for the return of the Parthenon Marbles from the British Museum in London.
