An agreement was concluded yesterday, July 10, 2008, between the Greek Ministry of Culture and Shelby White. Ms. White is a philanthropist and antiquities collector and has established the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University which supports ancient studies.
Ms. White will return to Greece two antiquities from her collection which, the Ministry contends, were illegally excavated and exported from Greece and which Ms. White acquired in good faith.
The first object is the upper part of a grave stele depicting a warrior and a youth dated to the early part of the 4th century B.C. The lower part of the stele was found in the early 60's in a legal excavation of the Greek Archaeological Service in a private field in Porto Rafti in Attica and today is exhibited in the Vravrona Archaeological Museum. For the first time after all those years the two parts of the stele can be put together and exhibited in their place of origin for the sake of the unity and integrity of the piece.
The second object is a bronze calyx krater dated approximately to 340 B.C. Greek archaeologists believe that the krater originates from Pieria, Northern Greece, and was most probably found in illegal excavations in a royal tomb in the area.
Both antiquities are very important, rare, and their repatriation will take place within July 2008. They will first be exhibited in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens and then be transferred to the Museums corresponding to the areas were they came from.