GREECE: The director of a Greek museum housing some of the medieval Bulgarian plates contested by Bulgaria said the artefacts had been legally purchased

The director of a Greek museum housing some of the medieval Bulgarian plates contested by Bulgaria said the artefacts had been legally purchased, but had no problem returning them if it was proved otherwise. Greece has rejected a claim by Bulgaria for the return of nine medieval plates currently housed in three Greek museums, saying it had documentation which proved they were legally obtained. Bulgarian prosecutors lodged an official demand with Greek judicial authorities for the return of the silver plates, encrusted with gold and dating to the 12th century, in July, saying they were illegally excavated in the 1990s and smuggled into Greece. Culture Ministry officials said they had documentation that proved the plates were legally purchased. The nine plates are on display in Athens' Benaki Museum, the Museum of Byzantine Culture in Thessaloniki and the Byzantine and Christian Museum of Athens. Each museum has three. Byzantine and Christian Museum Director Dimitrios Konstantios said the plates were purchased from a Greek antiquities collector in London in 2003 by the Benaki Museum , with Greek authorities following all legal procedures for their purchase. "And more importantly, there was extensive publication of the purchase both internationally and locally, without any reaction from anyone since 2003 - until today. The purchase of the plates was published in professional scientific journals and the Greek authorities followed all the rules regarding the purchase of these artefacts," Konstantios said. He said if there was proof they had been illegally looted he had no problem returning them to Bulgaria. "If someone proves that they left illegally from some other country, then of course they will be returned," he said, Last year Greece began a vigourous international campaign to return antiquities illegally looted from the country which have found their way into foreign museums, including reclaiming four artefacts from the J. Paul Getty Museum in the United States.

ITN Source | August 4, 2007

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