Portable Antiquity Collecting and Heritage Issues: More Arrested in Greek Antiquities Bust

Sunday, 4 March 2012

More Arrested in Greek Antiquities Bust

The number of people arrested over the weekend in the latest antiquities smuggling ring bust has gone up to 44, aged between 25 and 74, including pensioners and municipal workers Greek police said on Sunday. Arrests and antiquity seizures took place in a number of locations across northern and central Greece on Saturday and Sunday, said the force. Police had been investigating the group's moves for months. The suspects have already made depositions to an examining magistrate. Reports indicate that police had now recovered over 8000 ancient coins, mostly bronze (Kantouris says "9,200 silver and bronze coins") and ranging in date from the 6th century BC to the Byzantine period. These were on show over the weekend in Poligiros police station, Halkidiki Prefecture (560km north of Athens).

In raids on the properties of the arrested people, 19 metal detectors were also discovered, probable evidence of how and where the coins had been obtained.

The artifacts had been dug up during illegal archeological explorations, mainly in the regions of Macedonia and Thessaly, it said, adding that officers were working to identify items already sold abroad.

The raids also led to the discovery of some 300 "small artifacts", including three golden objects and a substantial quantity of ancient jewellery and bronze statuettes, as well as wooden icons dating from the Byzantine period.

Photos of some of the objects seized, in Poligyros police station
(Nikolas Giakoumidis / AP Photo)

It is reported that:

More than 200 police officers raided 55 buildings in 13 prefectures, mainly in northern Greece in an operation that began on Saturday, the statement said. A 66 year-old man believed to be the mastermind was also arrested. "The 66-year-old received the artifacts and after evaluating them, put them on sale in foreign countries through a network he had developed," police said. The man, a retired customs employee, frequently visited Bulgaria, Germany, Switzerland and Britain.

Kantouris adds that this man, from Gerakarou, "along with his two brothers, a daughter-in-law and another relative, formed the core of the group, while the other 39 would excavate in several places in northern and central Greece at the ringleader's request".

"We conducted 55 separate searches on Saturday," regional police chief Vassilis Kanalis said in northern Polygyros, 580 kilometers (360 miles) northeast of Athens. "This was the culmination of a great investigation which began six months ago." [...] "We are talking about a huge treasure, which ... was smuggled and sold abroad in small quantities," another regional police chief, Constantine Papoutsis, said. In the past six months, the ringleader made several trips abroad - to Bulgaria, Switzerland, Germany, Great Britain and the U.S. - presumably in search of clients. He traveled often, sometimes twice a week. "The case has a lot of depth. There are likely other persons involved, whom we will look for," Papoutsis said.