Two men convicted of illicit antiquities trade in Macedonian treasure case

Sellers going to jail, potential
buyers escape

Artefacts from the looting of an Archaic period tomb in 2011 are now in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. They include four helmets, golden masks and mouthpieces, a glass vase, clay and metallic vessels, clay figurines, rosettes and other golden objects, including a section of a golden diadem with embossed decoration, and fragments of an iron sword with decoration.This is the end of a case first reported here two years ago.

 Two men received heavy prison sentences on Tuesday after being convicted by a court in the northern city of Thessaloniki for smuggling of antiquities in a case that was first revealed on October 2011. One of the defendants was sentenced to 20 years of prison, while the second received 8 years and was released conditionally, pending his appeal. The two men were arrested by police in 2011 as they were preparing to sell several ancient artifacts valued at 11.5 million euros that were part of a large Macedonian treasure which they had hidden in the area of Gerakarou, near Thessaloniki. The case was revealed to police after the ministry of culture received an anonymous letter revealing the men’s connection to illicit antiquities trade. [...] One of the antiquities smugglers also showed police the two archaic tombs from which they stole most of the objects.

Source:
'Two men convicted of illicit antiquities trade in Macedonian treasure case' Enikos 10 December 2014

See also 
'Looters jailed for life over illegal antiquities' TANN