Thessalonika Bust Raises Questions

 

       A group of Greek and Roman coins on display       
   

A 61-year old man was arrested in the northern port city of Thessaloniki in Greece over the weekend is due to appear in front of a prosecutor (Man arrested over antiquities smuggling in Thessaloniki ekathimerini Newsroom 08.04.2023):

over the theft of antiquities including a number of ancient coins and two ceramic vases that fall under the protective provisions of the legislation on the protection of antiquities. The suspect was identified in an area of Halkidiki after he had previously attempted to send via a transport company in Thessaloniki a parcel to a recipient in Germany, which contained 180 ancient coins, carefully hidden in a container with olive oil. In police searches carried out at his residences in Halkidiki and Thessaloniki, 16 additional coins, a bronze pendant and two ceramic burial vases were found and seized. [...]

Both vases fakes, how many of the coins? Are the nes across the right back row Athenian Athena tets (like for example from the so-called 'Parliament' hoard found in Turkey)? Who is he alleged to have stolen them from, can any of them be proven to have been found outside Greece? And how many can be proven to have been found in Greece? How many were acquired on the open market outside Greece before being imported? All very odd, many questions, but feelgood articles like this are never followed up by any details of the further development of the case (which I suspect in many cases never happens, because the evidence of a crime is missing/poorly gathered). And journalists don't know enough to ask the right questions.