[MSN] Albania wants its stolen antiquities back

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Albania wants its stolen antiquities back

Athens - The Greek culture ministry will examine a demand by Albania for the restitution of two ancient marble statues stolen in 1997 that subsequently turned up in Greece, officials said on Thursday.

The two headless statues representing siblings Artemis and Apollo, the ancient Greek gods of hunting and music, date from the second and third centuries BC respectively.

They were stolen from the archaeological sites of Phoenice and Butrint in southern Albania, and turned up in the possession of a Greek and an Albanian arrested in Greece in 1997, a senior police officer said.

"Our policy is to return antiquities that are the object of trafficking," said George Gligoris, head of the Greek police unit combating the looting of antiquities.

'Our policy is to return antiquities that are the object of trafficking'
"We are awaiting an official demand" to begin the process, he said.

The statues are currently stored in the museum of the port of Piraeus.

The Greek and Albanian traffickers, who have since served their sentences, had attempted to sell the statues in Athens, Gligoris said.

In 2003, Greece returned to Albania three Roman-era marble heads stolen from Butrint during the chaos that followed the fall of the Albanian communist regime in 1991.

http://www.iol.co.za