[MSN] Greek villa cache suspected hub for artefact smugglers

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Greek villa cache suspected hub for artefact smugglers
April 19, 2006

ATHENS: Police and archeologists are searching through hundreds of ancient
relics discovered in a luxury villa on a tiny Greek island that some say
could have been the hub of a huge antiquities smuggling racket for years.
Acting on a tip-off, police raided a secluded seaside villa on Schinoussa,
an islet in the Cyclades archipelago, halfway between mainland Greece and
Turkey. The raid turned up priceless artefacts spanning the ancient, early
Christian and Byzantine eras. 

One shipping container outside the villa was found to hold an entire ancient
temple. 

"We're still counting and classifying the antiquities," a Greek Culture
Ministry official said. "We will have a clearer picture of what is going on
in a few days." 

Ministry sources said the concentration of such a large number of relics on
private premises in such a small place could signal that Schinoussa was an
unobtrusive hub for antiquities smugglers. 

Police think the case may be linked to Marion True, the former curator of
the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, who is on trial in Rome on charges of
conspiring to traffic in stolen antiquities. 

Despina Papadimitriou, the owner of the villa, is a member of a Greek
shipping family that lives in London. Her lawyers said she was willing to
co-operate in the investigation. Her late brother, Christos Michailidis, was
an antiquities dealer. 

Schinoussa is inhabited mainly by fishermen, except for the sprawling villa
complex facing a secluded cove. Residents said work on the complex had been
going on for at least 30 years. The villas are ringed by high walls and
guarded by dogs. Police became suspicious of Schinoussa after antiquities
were seized in two houses on the neighbouring resort island of Paros. 

Police said one of these houses was owned by Ms True. 

Ionnis Diotis, an Athens investigator, will travel to Los Angeles to examine
possible Greek connections to the Getty case. 

Ms True, 57, is on trial with Robert Hecht Jr, 86, a Swiss-American art
dealer. 

Both deny charges that they knowingly bought stolen artefacts for the Getty,
the richest art institution in the world. They face prison sentences of up
to 10 years if convicted. 

The trial, which began in November, is seen in Italy as a test case for the
trade in stolen antiquities and artworks, many of which are sold to dealers
- and hence to important museums or private collectors - by criminals who
steal from excavation sites. 

The hundreds of relics dicovered so far in and around the Papadimitriou
villa include temple parts, statues and busts, ceramic vessels, coins and
Byzantine-era icons. The private possession of ancient and medieval
artefacts is an offence in Greece. 

The more than 1400 islands in the Aegean Sea are a continuing headache for
the Greek Coast Guard. Schinoussa is easily overlooked in favour of its
bigger, touristy neighbours Paros, Naxos and Amorgos. 

Remote Aegean islands, once the home of pirates, can be refuges for modern
criminals. The most notorious has been Alexander Giotopoulos, who was
arrested in the northern summer of 2002 on the islet of Lipsi and convicted
of heading the November 17 terrorist organisation. 

The Times

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/