Good news from the Museum of Olympia

Not all the news from Greece is bad and the headlines of a recent article made me very happy: “Greek police recover stolen antiquities from Olympia”.

[picture from BBC.co.uk]

In early 2012 we got the devastating news that two masked men smashed display cabinets at the Archaeological Museum of Olympia where some of the most valuable treasures from the temples of Olympia were kept. The robbers took 76 precious artifacts, mainly bronze and clay statuettes of apparently incalculable value. Because of austerity measures here as well as all over Greece, museum staff was reduced to a minimum and the poor lady keeping watch in Olympia was gagged and threatened at gunpoint.

Presently, the Greek police are proud to announce that all the stolen items have been recovered in Patras when a gold ring from the collection was put up for sale. A police officer posing as a potential buyer was presented with a 3,200 years old gold ring with a starting price of 1,5 million Euros, which soon dropped to 300,000 Euros. This ring eventually led to the other stolen items, which had been buried in the fields near Patras.

All is well that ends well …