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Antiquities suffer at hands of crisis

Greece's antiquities and historical past is suffering at the hands of the national financial crisis with digs being postponed, illegal ones proliferating, museum staff trimmed and valuable pieces stolen, say Greek archaeologists

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Antiquities suffer at hands of crisis

An ancient Greek marble statue of a woman is displayed beside ancient metal artefacts: Police arrested a man in Thessaloniki on Wednesday and seized illegally excavated artefacts dating from Classical times to the late Middle Ages.
Photo: AP Photo/Nikolas Giakoumidis.

13 Apr 2012

Greece's antiquities and historical past is suffering at the hands of the national financial crisis with digs being postponed, illegal ones proliferating, museum staff trimmed and valuable pieces stolen, say Greek archaeologists.

"Greece's historic remains have become our curse," said an archaeologist at a recent media event organised to protest spending cuts.
Archaeological digs in Greece are finding it hard to obtain public funding while antiquity smuggling is on the rise, said archaeologists at the meeting.

"There are an increasing number of illegal digs near archaeological sites," said Despina Koutsoumba, head of the association of Greek archaeologists.
"Some of them are excavated by semi-professionals who work for art trafficking networks. Others are done by treasure hunters," she told AFP.

Last month, Greek police arrested 44 people and recovered thousands of ancient coins and numerous Byzantine icons after smashing a large antiquity smuggling ring in northern Greece.
In October, another smuggling group were arrested in possession of Macedonian golden grave offerings from the 6th century BC which were valued at some 11.3 million euros ($14.4 million).

Some senior archaeologists said that it would be better to rebury the valuable discoveries to protect given the lack of funding for archaeological research.
"Let us leave our antiquities in the soil, to be found by archaeologists in 10,000 AD, when Greeks and their politicians will perhaps show more respect to their history," Michalis Tiverios, a professor of archaeology at Thessaloniki's Aristotelio University, told Ta Nea daily in early March.

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There are a number of issues in this story. First, the pathetic pace of archaeological digs in the Hellenic Republic goes back decades. It is not the result of the current economic crisis. One only needs to look at how nothing has really been done on Santorini for half a century since the eminent Professor Marinatos stopped. But if money is a problem then why not cobnsider the obvious. there are anthropological and archaeological students at universities around the globe. The Hellenic government could invite them, at their own expense, to visit and to attend to digs in specific areas. Under supervision they could uncover more of our historical wealth without expense to the Hellenic nation but with their spending on accommodation, food and related expenses. Certainly such antiquities would attract more tourism. But the often greater issue is the theft of antiquities by traitors to Hellenism. I do not mean someone who takes a seed home with them from a plant or who picks up a souvenir pebble from a beach. I do not even mean someone who may take a small stone from an ancient track or temple. But I do refer to those who steal coins, statues and other artefacts. Who do so only to sell to others. Anyone caught buying such items must be dealt with very harshly. If overseas then their government must be harassed until they force the return of all stolen property. Those who sell them should be jailed at the minimum as the scum that they are. All rights as Hellenic citizens, if they are Hellenes, removed. If they are foreigners then the worst of prison treatment for them. Compassion is out the window for such creatures who would plunder out heritage for personal gain. We already have obscene situations such as a statue in New York but its head in Paris. Stolen artefacts around the globe, the most famous being stolen Parthenon Marbles in Rome, Paris and London. This must stop and the Hellenes of the Diaspora must be ever vigilant for such artefacts.
Submitted by atkenos on Mon, 2012-04-16 12:09.

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