Athens - A US arts collector returned a priceless artefact to Greece on Wednesday as the country continues its long battle for other treasures such as the Elgin Marbles to return to their rightful home. Greece received a fourth century BC bronze vase and remains of a marble tombstone depicting a young warrior from US art collector Shelby White barely a year after it launched a campaign for their return, relying on evidence they were smuggled out of the country.
The archaeological museum in Greece said the top part of the tombstone, which they had in their possession, could finally be reunited with the lower part after it was smuggled out of Greece during the 1960s.
The return of the vase and tombstone to Greece is part of the country's campaign to hunt down smuggled antiquities.
"Fighting antiquities smuggling is due to the work by governments' international cooperation," Greek Culture Minister Michalis Liapis told journalists.
"We sign agreements and unite our powers in the war against this criminal activity."
Last year, the J. Paul Getty Museum in California returned dozens of artefacts to Italy that were found to have been smuggled out of the country. A handful of objects was also returned to Greece.
The Greek government has fought a long, but until today, unsuccessful battle for the return of the Parthenon or Elgin Marbles, which were removed from the Acropolis nearly 200 years ago by British diplomat Lord Elgin, who sold them to the British Museum in London.
The museum has refused to listen to Greece's request for their return, arguing that they are better taken care of in their current home even though Athens plans to open a state-of-the art museum later in 2008.
