ARCHAEOLOGY

Revisiting the first excavations on Delos
CULTURE

After returning from a visit to Delos in May 1864, Leon Terrier, a member of the French School of Athens (Ecole Francaise d’Athenes, or EFA), stressed that if the antiquities on the sacred Cyclades island were allowed to be destroyed, the world would be left with a void that could never […]


Police seize 31 antiquities from criminal gang
NEWS

A rare, 4th century BC gold coin from a Greek colony on Crimea was among 31 antiquities confiscated in a raid on a premises in the Athens district of Paleo Faliro on Saturday. Police said that the objects were in the possession of a criminal gang engaged in the illegal trading of antiquities.



British Museum seeks recovery of some 2,000 stolen items
CULTURE

Around 2,000 artefacts including gold jewellery and gems had been stolen from the British Museum over a long period of time, but recovery efforts were already under way, the museum’s chair George Osborne said on Saturday.

British Museum director quits over stolen items
CULTURE

The director of the British Museum has said he is stepping down with immediate effect after admitting to failings in the museum’s investigation into the theft of items from its collection.



Archaeologists, Culture Ministry lock horns
CULTURE

The Culture Ministry’s recent decision to evict the Association of Greek Archaeologists (SEA) from the building on 134-136 Ermou Street which has been its home since 1982, is the latest episode in a long dispute between the union and the ministry.

The pain of theft
OPINION

It would be too easy to comment that the theft of antiquities from the British Museum, allegedly by a staff member who has since been sacked, is a sign of divine providence: the repository of much of humanity’s history, some of it of dubious provenance or evident theft, is getting a taste of its own medicine, and proving to be a far less adequate custodian of that incomparable treasure than it claims to be.