Greece has claimed that a statue in the Louvre on loan from the Cleveland Museum in Ohio was ilegally looted from the country.

From:
UKTV History

19th December 2006
UKTV History
Greece continues battle for ancient treasures

Greek authorities are continuing to press museums and galleries around the world for the return of ancient treasures.

The Louvre in Paris has been asked to refrain from displaying a statue of Apollo on loan to the museum from a US institution.
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Two more articles on the Getty’s latest agreement with Greece.

From:
The Times

The Times
December 13, 2006
Getty returns Greek antiquities

LONDON The Greeks may have failed to reclaim the Elgin Marbles from the British Museum, but they scored a significant victory yesterday when the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles took the dramatic step of returning two important antiquities.

A gold funerary wreath, c320-300BC, and a marble statue of a Kore, c530BC — both jewels of the Getty’s collection — are going home after the Greek Culture Ministry proved that they had been excavated illegally.
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Further coverage of the Getty’s agreement to return a gold wreath to Greece following eleven years of requests.

From:
The Scotsman

Mon 11 Dec 2006
Getty returns more antiquities to Greece to end row
By Karolos Grohmann

ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece on Monday declared an end to an 11-year dispute with the J.P. Getty Museum on Monday after the U.S. institution agreed to return two ancient artefacts.

In a joint statement released simultaneously in Athens and Los Angeles, the Getty, among the world’s richest museums, will return a spectacular 4th century BC Macedonian gold funerary wreath and a 6th century BC marble “kori” statue of a woman.
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Yet another disputed artefact from the Getty now looks set to be returned to its rightful owners. While the Getty continues to try & belatedly put its house in order though, the British Museum continues to hide behind the anti-deaccessioning clauses of the British Museum Act rater than actually dealing with the various similar issues relating to their own collection.

From:
New York Times

Getty Museum Is Expected to Return Gold Wreath to Greece
By HUGH EAKIN and ANTHEE CARASSAVA
Published: December 11, 2006

After nearly a year of negotiations, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles has agreed in principle to return a rare fourth-century B.C. gold funerary wreath to Greece that cultural officials there contend was illegally removed from Greek soil, an expert briefed on the talks said Sunday.

The museum, which bought the artifact in 1993, reached its decision in recent days after new information came to light about the wreath’s likely origin, the expert added. He said he was speaking on condition of anonymity because of an agreement on both sides not to speak with the news media until an announcement could be made.
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A priceless icon stolen from a Greek monastery has now been recovered by police in Crete following a tip off. Part of the problem though which drives the theft of artefacts is the fact that there are private collectors who are willing to pay for artefacts which lack any sort of provenance to prove that they have not been stolen.

From:
BBC News

Last Updated: Saturday, 23 September 2006, 12:24 GMT 13:24 UK
Greek police recover stolen icon

Greek police have recovered a priceless 700-year-old icon stolen last month in a daring raid on a cliffside monastery.

A Romanian man, arrested in Heraklion, the capital of Crete, following a police tip-off, confessed to the theft.
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The exhibition about looted heritage which was previously on display in Cyprus has now moved to the Benaki Museum in Athens.
This is a Reuters syndicated article which appeared in many newspapers around the world.

From:
gulfnews.com (UAE)

Published: 09/15/2006 12:00 AM (UAE)
Exhibition reveals secrets of antiquities smuggling
Reuters

Athens: Having fought for decades to recover its stolen ancient treasures, Greece is now hosting an exhibition exposing the secrets of antiquities smuggling past and present.

Sepia photographs of 18th century European aristocrats posing proudly next to looted ancient art may startle visitors to the Benaki Museum, but the show “History Lost” is not just a stroll through the past.
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The Greek government has agreed to lend the British Museum a large number of antiquities from the Heraklion Museum on Crete. The treasures will be lent during a period of major refurbishment of the museum during which it would have been closed to the public anyway. Greece is hoping that public displays of cooperation with the British Museum will highlight the fact that unlike some countries, the Greeks have always dealt with the case of the Elgin marbles separately from other archaeological issues. They are hoping that increased cooperation with the British Museum will lead to the possibility of serious discussions with the museum about the Parthenon Sculptures in their collection.
This current cooperation is an example to the British Museum of how resolving their differences with Greece could be beneficial to the museum in the future.

From:
Middle East Times (Egypt)

Friday, September 8, 2006
Greece to loan Minoan antiquities to British Museum
AFP
September 8, 2006

ATHENS — Greece has agreed to loan London’s British Museum a collection of priceless Minoan-era antiquities for an exhibition to be held by 2009, the Greek culture ministry has said.

Among antiquities on display will be the renowned bull-leaping frescoes from the Minoan palace of Knossos, Crete, a 3,700-year-old site excavated by British archaeologist Arthur Evans in the early 20th century.
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William St Clair has notified me of the publication of a new book relating to the Elgin Marbles. I understand from him that his paper in this book was originally intended to be in a follow-up to the book The Parthenon & Its Sculptures published in 2004. That book was based on a series of lectures given a conference on the Parthenon Marbles at the University of Missouri. The first book in the series reflected on the archaeological aspects of the case & originally the second book was supposed to contain those lectures that referred to the political aspects. For various reasons, the second volume was unpublished. Some of the papers that would have been contained in the later volume have been added to other lectures from a different conference in this new book edited by John Henry Merryman.

Imperialism, Art and Restitution
Author:
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521859298

From:
Cambridge University Press

Imperialism, Art and Restitution
Edited by John Henry Merryman
Stanford University, California
Hardback
(ISBN-13: 9780521859295 | ISBN-10: 0521859298)
Published August 2006 | 278 pages | 228 x 152 mm

IMPERIALISM, ART AND RESTITUTION

This book is about the repatriation, or not, of great works of art and antiquity taken during the Age of Imperialism and held today by European and American museums. The Elgin Marbles are the most famous example, but there are thousands of others. The nations of origin, supported by UNESCO, want these cultural treasures returned, while the museums unsurprisingly prefer to keep them. Public interest in the outcome runs high. In this volume prominent museum and government officials and leading scholars consider the ultimate disposition of the Elgin Marbles in the British Museum, the bust of Nefertiti in Berlin, and American Indian artifacts and human remains in American museums.
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I am not the first person to have said, that Greece could better market many of their archaeological sites, particularly in terms of internet presence etc. It is proposed that gradually some museums within the country will be able to move away from the centralised Archaeological Receipts Fund paradigm & take more control over their own administration. This will allow them to keep more of the money generated from their own initiatives & reuse it, creating an incentive for museums to enhance their facilities & attract more visitors. One only needs to look at the way in which two private museum in Athens, the Benaki & the Goulandris Museum of Cycladic Art are run, to see the potential for improving the state museums.
The New Acropolis Museum in Athens is intended to be one of the first museums to explore this new freedom, evidenced by the cafe & restaurant that have been included within the building.

From:
Kathimerini (English Edition)

Thursday August 10, 2006
Tourists depend on insider tips to know where to go
Receptionists at major hotels argue cultural events not promoted enough
Botero’s sculptures are hard to miss, but visitors often fail to hear of other important exhibitions.
By Margarita Pournara – Kathimerini

If you were to ask the minister of culture, the minister of tourism, the director of the Hellenic Festival or any other high-ranking administrative official of the capital’s museums or hotels what long-term goals Athens needs to set in terms of tourism, they would, in one voice, answer: strong incentives for foreign visitors to stay in the capital at least two or three days before heading for the islands, an opportunity for tourists to see something of Athens other than the Acropolis and the Ancient Agora and for them to leave with a good impression of the capital and the intention of visiting again. In short, what Athens needs is high-quality products and services and a long-term, inspired tourism development strategy such as that designed, and in part achieved, by Giorgos Loukos this year as director and architect of the revamped Hellenic Festival. Otherwise, the renaissance of Athenian tourism will remain in the hands of tour operators.
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The Elgin Marbles are by far the highest profile case of treasures from Greece that are now located outside the country. However, there are many other smaller cases, some dating from the same period as the Elgin Marbles, but other examples of looting are still occurring today.
The BBC looks at how Greece is now devoting more resources to fighting back against the looters & smugglers.
The full recording of the radio programme can also be listened to online here.

From:
BBC News

Last Updated: Wednesday, 2 August 2006, 15:44 GMT 16:44 UK
Greece fights for its lost treasures
By Rosie Goldsmith
BBC Radio 4′s Crossing Continents

An untold amount of Greek heritage has been lost to international smugglers, but now Greece is fighting back, determined to bring its treasures home.

“Smuggling is a very big problem and it is becoming bigger by the day. Everybody in Greece is doing some kind of digging or looting somewhere.”
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Italy & Greece have long been seen as one of the easiest sources for the trade in Illegal artefacts, largely due to the convenience of their location & the vast amount of unexcavated / unguarded treasures in both of the countries. Tightening of legislation & security within these countries though is leading to an increase in the number of illegal excavations elsewhere.

From:
The Guardian

It’s art squad v tomb raiders as Greece reclaims its pillaged past
As Athens and Rome clamp down, smugglers venture further afield
Helena Smith in Geneva
Friday July 21, 2006
The Guardian

For the connoisseur of ancient art, 6 rue Verdaine in Geneva’s old town is a jewel to behold. Set in its windows, like pearls in an oyster, are an elegant Attic red figure krater attributed to a 5th-century BC painter, an Etruscan pouring vessel and an array of vases.

Enter the plush showroom and the antiquities get better. Just in from the collection of an anonymous Swiss gentleman is a rare, 4th-century AD portrait of Helena, the mother of Constantine, the founder of Byzantium. The bronze bust, though severe of expression, is the showpiece of Phoenix Ancient Art – and comes with a £1.2m price tag. “Great-quality antiquities are a great investment,” says Ali Aboutaam, the gallery’s Lebanese proprietor. “They’re a fraction of the price of, say, buying a Picasso.”
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More coverage of the statements by Greece about recovering any artefacts that are believed to have left the country illegally.

From:
Time Magazine

The Return of the Relics
By ANTHEE CARASSAVA

Posted Tuesday, Jul. 18, 2006
A long Greek drama came closer to its end last week when the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles agreed to return to Greece two ancient artifacts: a 2,400-year-old tombstone and a 6th century B.C. marble relief of women offering gifts to a goddess. For decades, Greece has noisily lobbied for the return of relics–especially the British Museum’s Elgin Marbles, which were stripped from Athens’ Parthenon in the early 1800s. Its efforts got a big boost last year, when Italian authorities put former Getty antiquities curator Marion True on trial for trafficking in looted works. Then in February, New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art agreed to return to Italy the Euphronios krater, a 2,500-year-old vase.
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