This 4th century BC relief sculpture depicting the goddess Artemis being worshipped by a group of tiny humans is among six ancient Greek artifacts returned to Greece from London Thursday. [Ministry of Culture]
Six looted ancient Greek artifacts, including a marble sculpture that had been an offering at a now destroyed temple of Artemis in Piraeus, were repatriated Thursday from London following a long legal battle, the Culture Ministry said.
The works were among antiquities held by an art dealership, now under liquidation, that was founded by the disgraced dealer Robin Symes, who died in 2023. Greece has already secured the return of 351 antiquities, dating from Neolithic to mediaeval times, from Robin Symes Limited in May 2023. The same year, some 750 artifacts from the same company were returned to Italy.
Culture Minister Lina Mendoni said Athens had been trying to wrest back the six pieces – a marble votive relief and five small bronze statuettes – since 2006, as part of its high-profile campaign to repatriate illegally excavated and exported Greek antiquities.
“The Culture Ministry will continue, with the same insistence and thoroughness, its work to locate, document and seek the return of antiquities that have illegally left our country,” she said. “Every artifact is part of our identity and history.”
The white marble relief is important because it’s inscribed with a dedication to Artemis Mounychia, the form in which the ancient Greek goddess of hunting was worshipped at a sanctuary in Piraeus, under the hill of Mounychia, modern Kastella. The site was destroyed during antiquity and its remains all but obliterated by construction, first of a private villa and then a yacht club some 90 years ago. It stood on a small promontory on modern Tourkolimano – the ancient Athenian naval arsenal.
Dating to roughly 350-300 BC and measuring 92 by 52 centimeters, it depicts the goddess being worshipped by a group of tiny humans – three men, five women and six children. The ministry said Thursday that the work is the only piece of relief sculpture known to come from the Mounychia sanctuary. Other works, including pottery, are now in the Archaeological Museum of Piraeus.
The ministry said in a statement that a photograph of the relief had been discovered in the archives of Gianfranco Becchina, an Italian dealer convicted in Italy over looted antiquities. “According to Greek judicial authorities, the work was illegally excavated and trafficked out of Greece,” it said.
The bronze statuettes, three male and two female, are about 6 centimeters high and represent people worshipping a god. It’s a type known from the Bronze Age, but their precise date and provenance are unknown. All six repatriated works will be displayed at the Archaeological Museum of Piraeus, the ministry said.
