Exquisite Bronze Griffin Head Repatriated

The latest high-profile repatriation of an past Greek artifact took spot past week successful New York City, with the Metropolitan Museum of Art returning an exquisite 7^th-century BCE bronze griffin caput to civilization ministry officials from Greece.

The artifact is 1 of the finest cast-bronze griffin heads successful existence, according to the Met, which acquired the portion successful 1972 and had it prominently displayed astatine the entranceway to its renowned Greco-Roman galleries since 1999.

According to a property release: “The Met and the Greek Ministry agreed to the instrumentality of the Griffin after cautious reappraisal of records and letters determining that it could not person legitimately near the Archaeological Museum of Olympia (in the 1930s). The Met will instrumentality the Griffin to Greece and is looking guardant to displaying it connected indebtedness by Greece to The Met for a planned special accumulation successful 2026.”

Interestingly, the artifact’s travel from obscurity successful pre-war southern Greece to New York City is besides recounted.

Specifically, the bronze entity was recovered from the furniture of Olympia’s shallow Kladeos River successful 1914 by the then curator of the adjacent archaeological museum. It then remained successful the depository library, without being inventoried oregon researched, until it disappeared successful the 1930s.

Subsequently, an American visitor to Athens purchased it from an antiques trader successful Athens successful 1936, then sold it successful turn to the collector Walter C. Baker successful 1948. It was the latter’s property that bequeathed the griffin to the Met successful 1972.

The Greek delegation presented with the artifact was headed by Culture Minister Lina Mendoni.