A German woman who stole ancient antiquities more than 50 years ago returns them to Greece: “It is not too late to do the right thing”

The Greek Ministry of Culture said on Saturday that the German woman who stole the top of an ancient column in Olympia more than half a century ago returned it to Greece.

The limestone column capital, nine inches high and 33.5 cm (13 in) wide, was taken from the Leonidion, a guesthouse dating back to the 4th century BC.

In a Social media sharingThe Greek Ministry of Culture praised the “sensitivity and courage” of the woman who returned the artifact.

This is the third artifact returned by the University of Münster in recent years. The delivery took place on Friday.

“Motivated by the recent return of important relics from the University of Münster to their countries of origin, I have decided to hand them over to the University, which has returned with its valuable contribution to ancient Greece and Olympia.” The ministry saidPraising the woman’s “sensitivity and courage”.

In 2019, the University of Münster returned a two-handled wine cup belonging to a champion from the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896.

Then in 2024, it brought back a marble head of a Roman-era man that came from a cemetery in Thessaloniki.

“This is a particularly poignant moment,” said Georgios Didaskalou, a senior official at the Ministry of Culture. “This work proves that culture and history know no borders, but rather require cooperation, responsibility and mutual respect.”

“It is not too late to do the right, moral and just thing,” added Torben Schreiber, curator at the University of Münster’s Archaeological Museum.

Athens has been trying for years to broker deals to return the antiquities without resorting to legal procedures.

Its main goal remains return Parthenon MarbleWhich has been kept by the British Museum since the nineteenth century. Several European governments Payment has been made To return sculptures to Athens since the early 1980s.