New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) has returned a stolen bronze antique to Greece.
MET Director Max Hollein handed over the bronze griffin head dating from around 650 to 625 BC to Greece’s Culture Minister, Lina Mendoni, the ministry announced on Tuesday in a communiqué.
The 25.8-cm object, originally part of a tripod cauldron used for offerings to the gods, is an exceptional example of ancient Greek metallurgy, according to the minister.
The bronze head was stolen in 1936 from the local museum at Olympia, the historic site of the ancient Olympic Games in the Peloponnese region.
It was later sold by a Greek antique dealer to US antiquities dealer Joseph Brummer, and then bought by financier and former MET Vice President Walter C. Baker, who bequeathed it to the MET in 1971.
“This is the repatriation of one of the most iconic objects in our ancient collection,” said Max Hollein.
Following an investigation by the MET, Hollein confirmed that the object had not left Greece legally.
Greece, rich in ancient history, has been fighting for decades to repatriate looted antiquities, particularly the Parthenon Marbles, which have been held by a British Museum since the 19th Century.
