Ancient Greek artifacts go on display for first time, amid protests

A deal that has caused controversy in Greece saw fifteen ancient Greek artifacts taken from the private Cycladic art collections of a billionaire in the United States and displayed for the first time in Athens on Wednesday (2 November).

Following a deal between Greece's Metropolitan Museum of Art and New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Cycladic antiquities were brought to Athens by Leonard N. Stern (a businessman and philanthropist) for repatriation of 161 artifacts he had collected over the years.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitchells spoke at the opening ceremony, describing it as "truly an extraordinary day for the culture life of the country" and referring to the works as "priceless antiques of rare beauty that are returning home."

After being displayed at the Cycladic Museum Athens for one year, the 15 most important works of the collection will be displayed in New York starting in 2024 for a period of 25 years. They will be gradually returned to Greece.

The Stern collection includes 161 works that were made in the Cyclades cluster, an area of islands in the Aegean sea, primarily during the early Bronze Age. The culture ministry of Greece says that many of the objects, including figurines and vase, in the collection are "extremely rare" or exceptional examples of the art and techniques of the Cycladic civilization.

The September deal between Greece's lawmakers and The Met has caused controversy in Greece. Many conservators and archaeologists have demanded their immediate and permanent return.

In a statement released before the opening, five unions representing archaeologists and conservators as well as ministry workers called the agreement "a scandal".

They stated that "these objects have not been legally checked as to whether or not they are genuine or fake" and how they got from Cyclades to the collection a multimillionaire New York.

During Wednesday's protest, a small group of protestors held a white banner at the museum that read "They're taken."

Mitsotakis said the deal was "a blueprint to other solutions to follow", referring to the "Elgin Marbles", which are 75m of Parthenon friezes, 15 metopes, and 17 sculptures. These have been a target for Greece since Lord Elgin removed them in the 19th century. He was then ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.

The British Museum, the custodian of marbles, has decided not to return them.

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