A surprising discovery shook Thessaloniki on January a Greek marble statue, dating back more than 2 years, was found abandoned near a trash can, hidden in a black bag. It was a year-old man who, intrigued by this strange deposit, alerted the police. The work, which measures approximately 32 centimeters high, belongs to the Hellenistic period BC , a flourishing time for Greek art.
Despite its partial state — without a head or arms — it testifies to the sculptural refinement of Antiquity. The authorities immediately opened an investigation to determine the origin of the statue and understand how it ended up among the waste.
The Northern Greece Organized Crime Department took charge of the case, citing two hypotheses: an antiquities trafficking gone wrong or a chance discovery on a construction site, which the perpetrator would have preferred to get rid of discreetly. Indeed, in Greece, many antique objects are unearthed during construction work, which sometimes leads to administrative complications and delays in construction projects.
This case illustrates the persistence of the black market for antiquities in Greece, a country where the subsoil is full of historical treasures. Similar discoveries have taken place recently, such as that of a statue of Hermes near Athens last December. Now in the hands of experts, the statue from Thessaloniki will be analyzed in a laboratory before being entrusted to the archaeological authorities for conservation. It remains to be seen whether this enigma will reveal all its secrets.
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