The latest repatriation of ancient antiquities was finalized this week with a brief handover ceremony at the Greek consulate in New York City, with the returned artifacts dating from the Neolithic period to the Hellenistic period and all the era in between, including Mycenean and Minoan.
A total of 29 artifacts illegally excavated or trafficked from Greece were handed over to Greek authorities during the special ceremony attended by culture ministry general secretary Georgios Didaskalou and the country’s general consul in New York, Ifigenia Kanara.
The repatriated cache of priceless artifacts is yet another success of the Antiquities Trafficking Unit led by Col. Matthew Bogdanos, the chief of the specific unit at the New York District Attorney’s Office.
In heralding the latest repatriation of antiquities operation, Greek Culture Minister Lina Mendoni noted that “every repatriation of Greek antiquities is an extremely important event and vindicates the policy pursued by the ministry of culture in recent years. Greece is now internationally recognized as a country that has placed the fight against the illegal trafficking of cultural goods, a phenomenon directly linked to organized crime and terrorism, high on its political agenda. This was also evident at Mondiacult, the global conference on cultural policies organized by UNESCO in Barcelona. The latest success of the Antiquities Trafficking Unit, headed by Matthew Bogdanos and the Department of Homeland Security Investigations, fills us with joy and optimism.”
Nearly all of the objects ended up at the Fortuna Fine Arts antiquities dealership, from where they were confiscated. A total of 18 of the 29 artifacts ended up in the Metropolitan Museum of Art collections, with which the ministry of culture maintains long-time cooperation.
Referring to the cooperation with the Greek side, Bogdanos said there were seven such repatriations of antiquities to Greece over the last 20 years, and US officials recovered more than 160 valuable artifacts valued at more than 45 million US dollars. Their true value however cannot be counted in terms of dollars or euros, however, but in the joint cultural heritage, he added, referring to his own Greek heritage.
