German woman returns Greek relic stolen over 50 years ago

A German woman who stole the top of an past file successful Olympia implicit fractional a period agone has returned it to Greece, the Greek civilization ministry said Saturday.

The superior of the column, made of limestone and measuring 24 cm (nine inches) precocious and 33.5 cm wide, was taken from the Leonidaion, a 4th-century BC guesthouse.

It is the third artifact returned by the University of Muenster successful caller years. The handover took spot connected Friday.

“Motivated by the caller instrumentality of important antiquities from the University of Muenster to their countries of origin, she decided to manus it implicit to the university, with whose valuable publication it returned to Greece and Ancient Olympia”, the ministry said, hailing the “sensitivity and courage” of the woman.

In 2019, the University of Muenster returned a twin-handled wine cupful belonging to a champion from the archetypal modern Olympic Games successful Athens successful 1896.

Then successful 2024, it returned a Roman-era marble antheral caput which came from a cemetery successful Thessaloniki.

“This enactment proves that civilization and past cognize nary borders but necessitate cooperation, responsibility, and communal respect,” Giorgios Didaskalou, a elder civilization ministry authoritative said.

Torben Schreiber, curator of the University of Müenster’s archaeological museum, added that: “It is ne'er too precocious to bash the close thing, the motivation and the just.”

Athens has been trying for years to broker deals for the repatriation of antiquities without resorting to ineligible action.

Its main extremity remains the instrumentality of the Parthenon Marbles, held by the British Museum since the 19th century.