Antique statues from illegal digs in Greece and Spain

The news made the headlines as a 2,500 year old statue of a woman was discovered in a goat shack near Athens. The shepherd was held under suspicion of planning to sell this statue for no less than half a million dollars. The 120 centimetres high statue of a koré seemed to date from 520 BC, and after a first autopsy by archaeologists is being estimated to be worth 12 million Euros. The world is juggling with dollars and Euros in the millions these days, it seems.

Yet, only ten days later the Greek Ministry for Culture announces that the statue is a fake. A more thorough analysis has revealed that the statue was casted and not sculptured. I’m not an expert in these matters, but it seems to me that a good archaeologist could make the difference between casted and sculptured, no? Not very flattery for the one(s) who made the initial statement…

In any case, they now are certain that the statue from the goat shack is a copy identical to the one found in 1886 on the Acropolis. End of story.

On the other hand the bronze statues that were dug up illegally in Spain are very authentic. The two Roman statues measuring respectively 150 and 130 cm are very well preserved. The newspaper article doesn’t provide any further information as to who or what is represented, only that the suspects were about to sell their finds on the black market to an Italian. In any case, this transaction has been stopped and the Museum of Cordoba can happily add two more statues to their collection.