Five rare ancient Greek silver coins, which were to be auctioned in houses in Munich and Zurich, have been repatriated, the Ministry of Culture and Sports said in a statement.
Three of them, which had been smuggled out of Greece, were repatriated on September 30, 2020, from Munich. It is a stater of Lindos of the first half of the 5th century BC, an octadrachma of the king of the Idona Geta, dating from around 480-460 BC, and a stater of Elis of 328 BC. The coins were handed over by the Bavarian police authorities to the Consulate General of Greece in Munich, returned to Athens, and are kept in the Numismatic Museum, which we assisted in their identification.
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According to the Ministry of Culture, the repatriation of coins is linked to the dismemberment, in October 2016, by the Patras Security Sub-Directorate of a multi-member criminal organisation operating out of Greece with contacts in many other countries and related to the illegal trafficking of cultural goods.
