New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art has returned a 2,600-year-old bronze artifact stolen from ancient Olympia in the 1930s.
The Greek culture ministry in a statement said the bronze griffin’s head, dated to 650-625 BC and was an “exquisite sample of ancient Greek metalwork and had previously been prominently displayed at the Met’s ancient Greek and Roman art collection.
The 25.8-centimetre (10.1 inch) head was originally a decorative part of a tripod cauldron, which in antiquity were popular religious offerings to gods.
The culture ministry also said it had established “beyond any doubt” that the head, willed to the Met in 1971 by financier and former museum vice-president Walter C. Baker, was stolen from Olympia, birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games
