Important antiquities returned to Greece from the Getty Museum

Translated trom the Greek: Naftemboriki, 09.03.2012.

The two pieces of the funerary sculpture and one inscribed stele are currently in the National Archaological Museum of Athens, having been returned from the Getty Mueseum.

The National Archaeological Museum in Athens is were two parts of a funerary sculpture and an inscribed stele which were returned from the Getty Museum are being kept.

Last September the Minister of Culture and Tourism, mr Pavlos Geroulanos, and the President and Head Councilor of the Paul Getty Museum, James Guno, signed a Memorandum of Cooperation, which guarantees a clear and institutionalised framework of collaboration and exchange of cultural goods.


The return of these antiquities marks the beginning of a new era in the relations between the Greek Ministry of Culture and the Los Angeles Museum - which is now functioning under an updated framework of principles. It also marks the heightening of Greece's efforts to fight illegal commerce of antiquities. The aim of the collaboration of the two institutions is the systematic reinforcing of scientific research, the highlighting of Greek cultural heritage, and an effort to diminish illegal trafficking of antiquities.

The two antiquities will remain for a short period in the National Archaeological Museum. after this the inscribed stele will be transferred and exhibited in the Epigraphic Museum and the funerary sculpture will be rejoined and will be exhibited in the Kanellopoulos Museum.

Supplementary Information from: To Ethnos, 09.03.2012
By Aggeliki Kotti
Return of Two Ancient Treasures

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The inscribed stele that had been on show in the Getty Museum is of special importance. It bears text on the main side and on the two sides. It is a calendar of sacrifices and feasts that were held in Thorikos of Attica, in honour of various deities and local heroes.

It is very important that these celebrations are placed in the framework of Attic months. The inscription is 65 lines long, meaning that it is long compared to similar finds and is dates to the Classical Era (430-420 B.C.).

The text gives a clear image of the customs of the time: Some times the believers had to fulfil difficult obligations. For example some gods demanded the sacrifice during the month of Anthesirion of a young black goat that had two teeth. Other gods were satisfied with a he-goat, brown or reddish.

The parts of the funerary sculpture that were returned belong with another portion that is kept in the Pavlos and Alexandra Kanellopoulos Museum in Athens. The identification of the three pieces as belonging to the same monument had been made in 1975. The image shows two female figures, a lady seated to the left and a slave in front of her touching her cheek with her right hand. In is an exquisite example of sculpture produced by an Attic workshop, dated to the end of the 5th century B.C.

The reward offered to Getty will be the loan, for three years, of an ancient inscribed stele from the Archaeological Museum of Athens, with the approval of the Central Archaeological Council. It bears the image of Herakles and Antiochus, the hero of the Antiochid tribe of Athens, while the inscription refers to the honours that were to be attributed for his bravery to Prokleides, head of the elite troops of the tribe.

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See also:

• Ta Nea, 10.03.2012
  

Weary Hercules returns from Boston

Weary Herakles bust to be returned by US to Turkey

From BBC News, 22.07.2011

The two halves of the statue (top half in Boston MOFA, lower half in Antalya museum)


The stunning piece portrays the demigod Hercules

The top half of the Weary Herakles statue, which was bought by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in 1982, is to be returned to its native Turkey.

After an ongoing dispute, the MFA will reunite the bust with its lower half at the Antalya Museum later this year.

The announcement is seen as a victory for Turkey which is trying to retrieve artefacts it believes have been looted throughout the years.

It is thought the full statue will return to Boston on a short-term loan.

The top half of the sculpture of weary demigod Hercules was purchased in 1981 from a German dealer, by the MFA and late New York art collecter Leon Levy.

A year later, it was displayed at the US museum before being put into storage in 2007.

Turkish archaeologists were convinced the bust had been looted and taken from the country. At the same time, the lower half of the statue was discovered in 1980 at Perge in southern Turkey.

The MFA always denied that was the case, insisting the bust could have been found "any time since the Italian Renaissance".

Speaking to the Times newspaper, Katherine Getchell from the Boston Museum, said: "It's only in the last couple of years that they've presented us with photos and other evidence of looting from that site."

This is the latest victory for Turkey's campaign to track down lost antiquity.

In May, the Pergamon Museum in Germany agreed to return a Hittite sphinx after the Turkish Culture Minister threatened to ban German archaeologists from digs in the country.

Ertugrul Gunay told the Times that the country plans to "fight in the same way for all our other artefacts".

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A.M. Note

Despite the declaration that "It's only in the last couple of years that they've presented us with photos and other evidence of looting from that site", the video (see above) shows that casts of the two pieces had been fitted together. The test appears to have taken place in September 1992 (see the Boston Globe article). After this test - which proved beyond doubt the origin of the statue, the museum decided to switch its defence, arguing that the date of exportation could have been prior to 1906, as Turkish law protects only artefacts smuggled out after that date.

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See also:

• Boston Globe, 17.07.2011. (if you are interested in the matter you must see this)
• Rogueclassisim, 23.07.2011.
• Daily Mail Online, 26.07.2011
• To Vima, 25.07.2011
• SETimes.com, 28.07.2011
• Hürriyet, 25.09.2011
• Hürriyet, 28.09.2011
• Hürriyet, 30.09.2011 (interview of Professor İnci Delemen of Istanbul University)
• Hürriyet, 30.09.2011
• Hürriyet, 09.10.2011
  

A Coin Hoard from Abdera returned to Greece

Return of a Coin Hoard to Greece
Source: Eleutherotypia, 21.07.2011.
By N. Kontrarou-Rassia

A rich American collector bought from a coin auction in New York in 2000 an Archaïc hoard of coins from ancient Abdera.

The hoard bought by 54-year old Jonathan Kagan was made up of 22 silver coins, which he delivered last year in September to the Consulate of Greece in New York, having previously studies them and published his conclusions in a volume dedicated to the great American numismatist John H. Kroll.

His desire was that the hoard enrich the collection of the Numismatic Museum of Athens, in honour of the professor of the University of Texas J. H. Kroll, whose work in a landmark in the study of the coinage of Athens.

How much did the acquisition cost?

The hoard is made up of three didrachms, a drachm, a hemidrachm, two obols and fifteen hemiobols. The coins first appeared in commerce in London in 2000 and were divided. Some appeared in auction catalogues. Greece did not claim them, evidently because it had no evidence of illegal exportation from the country.

Mr Kagan is a director of a company that is active in hi-tech products in New York; he has a degree from Harvard and completed his post-graduate studies in Oxford. He obtained the greater part of the hoard in 2000. He is a collector himself, and in the past has offered pieces from his collection to various American museums. He admires ancient art and his wife is Ute Wartenberg-Kagan, head of the American Numismatic Society, prolific writer on ancient Greek numismatics.

Octadrachm (28,12 gr, 28 mm) of Abdera (c. 500-475 B.C.?). CNG eAuction 256 (25.05.2011), 4. NOT part of the hoard.

How much did the acquisition of the 22 rare coins of Abdera cost? "I do not know. But whether he bought them for a cent or for five millions, what is important is the gesture, which shows that the world is now sensitive and responds to our calls for the return of antiquities", Despoina Evgenidou, director of the Numismatic Museum of Athens told us yesterday. She is already working on the exhibition of the hoard, which will be ready during the second half of November.

The scientific value of the coins is great. They prove that in this early time, the 6th century B.C., people used coins and, what is more, small silver fractions of the drachma, which a few years later were replaced by bronze coins. These coins were not destined to pay taxes or to buy grain from other regions. They were the means to cover everyday needs (food, household objects). "The larger exchanges, as the payment of taxes and long-distance commerce, where largely covered by the silver series, meaning the octadrachms and the tetradrachms", claims the director of the Numismatic Museum. The existence of this treasure shows that moneyed societies existed in very early times. It also tells us what the coinage of Abdera at the end of the 6th century was.

Apollo and Gryffin

"It is a very important donation, because not only does it enrich the numismatic series of Abdera that we have in the Numismatic Museum, but it adds to a very important section of our collections, that of coin hoards", underlines mrs Evgenidou.

Abdera was founded, according to myth, by Hercules, to honour the memory of his comrade Abderus, who had been killed by the mares of Diomedes. The first founder was the Klazomenian Timesios in 654 B.C. The city was refounded in 545 B.C., when migrants from the ionian town of Teos arrived, escaping enslavement by the Persians. The coins of the new inhabitants were similar to those of their old home. On the reverse they bore the head of Apollo and on the obverse a Griffin, the monster of myth that was considered to guard gold and silver mines. This is the type to be found on the coins offered by mr Kagan. The most important ones are those almost invisible to the eye: the small silver fractions that circulated for a few years before being replaced by larger bronze coins.

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A.M. Notes:

1. The image that illustrates the original article (not reproduced here) has nothing to do with the hoard under discussion. It is an image from the Hoard Northern Syria, Manbij (?), 2010 (see here), comprised of tertradrachms and drachms of Philip II and Alexander III.
2. The complete title of the publication mentioned is: Jonathan H. Kagan, "Small Coinage and the Beginning of Coinage at Abdera", Agoranomia: Studies in Money and Exchange presented to John H. Kroll, New York 2006, 49-59.
3. The complete composition, as presented by Kagan: 5 Didrachms, 2 Drachms, 2 Hemidrachms (first known), 2 Obols, 18 Hemiobols. Total 29.
4. The early coins of Abdera did not have the Apollo type. They bore the Griffin on the obverse and an incuse square on the reverse (see photo, above). These are the types that the coins from this hoard bore.
5. For the coinage of Abdera see: J.M.F. May, The Coinage of Abdera, London 1966.

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On the same subject:

• Eleutherotypia, 16.11.2011