Returns to Greece from New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art

Source: MMA

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced that it returned 12 antiquities to the Hellenic Republic of Greece in October. 

The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced today that it is returning 12 objects to the Hellenic Republic of Greece, including: four pieces of jewelry, two iron machaira (swords), two bronze belt clasps, two terracotta jugs, and two stone axe heads, and one group of silver spirals. The archaeological works range in date from 2700 BCE to 400 BCE. The works range in date from 2700 BCE to 400 BCE. Through the Museum’s cooperation with the Manhattan DA’s office, and as a result of its investigation into Fortuna Fine Arts, the Museum recently received new information that made it clear that the works should be repatriated, resulting in a constructive resolution.

The return is presumably part of this oblique press release from the Manhattan DA that acknowledges help from Fortune Fine Arts. Some of the items can be recognised here.

Although the press release does not give further details (and the press release list is not entirely accurate), these items can be identified as:

• gold pendant, [1999.12] 
• [Until 1999, with Fortuna Fine Arts, Inc., New York]; acquired in 1999, purchased from Fortuna Fine Arts, Inc. Deaccessioned for return to the Hellenic Republic in September 2025.
• two silver bracelets [1991.170.1] [1991.170.2]
• [Until 1991, with Selim Dere, New York]; acquired in 1991, gift of Selim Dere. Deaccessioned for return to the Hellenic Republic in September 2025.
• Gold and silver bracelet, [1993.314]
• [Until 1993, with Selim Dere, New York]; acquired in 1993, anonymous gift. Deaccessioned for return to the Hellenic Republic in September 2025.
• two iron machaira (swords), [2001.346] [2001.543]
• [Until 2001, with Fortuna Fine Arts, Inc.]; acquired in 2001, purchased from Fortuna Fine Arts, Inc. Deaccessioned for return to the Hellenic Republic in September 2025.
• [Until 2001, with Fortuna Fine Arts, Inc., New York]; 2001, purchsed by Andres A. Mata from Fortuna Fine Arts, Inc.; acquired in 2001, gift of Andres A. Mata, in honor of Carlos A. Picon, 2001. Deaccessioned for return to the Hellenic Republic in September 2025.
• two Macedonian bronze belt clasps, [2001.578] [2001.579]
• [Until 2001, with Fortuna Fine Arts, Inc.]; acquired in 2001, purchased from Fortuna Fine Arts, Inc. Deaccessioned for return to the Hellenic Republic in September 2025.
• 2001.579: Purchase, Mrs. Constance Goulandris Gift, in memory of Christos G. Bastis, 2001
• Cycladic or Cretan terracotta jug,  [2004.342.2]
• [Until 2004, with Fortuna Fine Arts, Inc., New York]; June 2004, purchased by Andres A. Mata from Fortuna Fine Arts, Inc.; acquired in 2004, gift of Andres A. Mata. Deaccessioned for return to the Hellenic Republic in September 2025.
• Cycladic collared jar, [2004.342.1]
• [Until 2004, with Fortuna Fine Arts, Inc., New York]; June 2004, purchased by Andrés Mata from Fortuna Fine Arts, Inc., New York; acquired in August 2004, gift of A. Mata. Deaccessioned for return to the Hellenic Republic in September 2025.
• two stone axe heads, [2004.342.3]] [2004.342.4]
• [Until 2004, with Fortuna Fine Arts, Inc., New York]; June 2004, purchsed by Andres A. Mata from Fortuna Fine Arts, Inc.; acquired in August 2004, gift of Andres A. Mata. Deaccessioned for return to the Hellenic Republic in September 2025.
• one group of silver spirals. [1992.367.1–.6a, b]
• [Until 1992, with Selim Dere, New York]; acquired in 1992, anonymous gift. Deaccessioned for return to the Hellenic Republic in September 2025.

Other pieces of interest (not apparently discussed in the press release) include:

• a terracotta figure returned to Italy [2000.39]
• Private collection, England; [until 2000, with Fortuna Fine Arts, Inc.]; acquired in 2000, purchased from Fortuna Fine Arts, Inc. Deaccessioned for return to the Republic of Italy in September 2025.
• See Manhattan DA press release for mention of Fortuna Fine Arts
• a marble head of Demosthenes returned to Türkiye [2012.479.9]
• Mussienko Family Collection, Maryland, 1973. Sold by Fortuna Fine Arts, New York, to Ariadne Gallery, New York, in 1987. Sold by the Ariadne Gallery to Morris Pinto, New York, before December, 1992. Consigned by Morris Pinto to Christie’s New York, December 15, 1992, lot 14, passed in. Consigned by Morris Pinto to the Acanthus Gallery, New York. Acquired by Renée E. and Robert A. Belfer from the Acanthus Gallery, New York, before 1998. Given by Renée E. and Robert A. Belfer to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2012. Deaccessioned for return to the Republic of Türkiye in September 2025.

The press release remarks:

As part of a commitment to transparency, The Met has launched object webpages for all restituted works of art, specifying that the object has been returned and to what country.

It would be helpful, in the spirit of transparency, if the so-called provenance team provided more precise information about their returns. A concerted effort to tidy up the "repatriated objects" page would be a start.

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From Geneva to Athens

L: source, Phoenix Ancient Art
R: source, Hellenic Ministry of Culture

The Hellenic Ministry of Culture has announced the return of 15 antiquities that had been seized from an unnamed antiquities gallery in Geneva [press release]. The Attic black-figured column-krater attributed to Lydos appears to be the one that features in the 2015 catalogue for Phoenix Ancient Art of Geneva and New York. Entry no. 4 shows the krater, reconstructed from 'large fragments', decorated with Herakles and the centaur Nessos. The entry suggests that it formed part of the Lambert collection in Neuchâtel prior to 1972 and then by descent through the family. 

Such histories may have to be treated with caution given the disagreement over the paths taken by the Ka-Nefer-Nefer coffin lid, the head of Drusus, and the Leutwitz Apollo. 

We do not know where the krater was unearthed, but northern Greece seems to be a likely possibility. 

I am grateful to a colleague in Italy who directed me to search the catalogue of Phoenix Ancient Art.

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Looted cemetery provides life sentence

Looting in a cemetery in northern Greece has provided two Greek men with a life sentence ("2 Greeks Jailed for Life Over Illegal Antiquities", AFP December 21, 2012). Some 70 objects were $15.85 million were involved. The gold masks, iron swords, and other objects are reminiscent of the 6th century BC finds from Sindos.

Two other individuals were also given extended sentences.

This story reminds us that the Greek authorities are taking a firm position over looting.

Hellenistic Gold Wreath at Bonhams

The gold wreath due to be auctioned at Bonhams (lot 240) next week is discussed on "Archaeology Matters". There is a link to a report in the Greek press (N. Kontrarou-Rassia, "Στο σφυρί μοναδικά και πανάκριβα αρχαία", Eleutherotypia, April 9, 2010). It appears that Greek archaeologists have contacted Bonhams asking for further information about the wreath and requesting additional photographs.

The first documented appearance of the wreath was at Sotheby's in London (July 11, 1988, lot 83). However it is also stated that the wreath resided in an unspecified private Swiss collection; the date of acquisition is uncertain ("between the 1930s-60s"). This sounds like one of the "interesting provenances" that was highlighted in the press release issued by Bonhams.

Octodrachm seized in Switzerland: update

I recently commented on a news story (in a Greek language newspaper published in Thessaloniki) about the reported seizure of a Thraco-Macedonian coin in Switzerland. (My post was unillustrated.)

The paper does not state the auction house but it does provide key information: "Η δημοπρασία στη Ζυρίχη, που οργανώθηκε από αγγλικό οίκο, ολοκληρώθηκε την περασμένη Τρίτη και το νόμισμα πουλήθηκε αντί του ποσού των 116.500 ελβετικών φράγκων (περίπου 77.000 ευρώ)". There is an auction house with an address in London SW1 and with a further branch in Zurich (and Milan). And on Wednesday (not Tuesday) last week (October 7) lot 110 (auction 52) consisted of "Greek coins, Kings of the Bisaltae, Mosses, Octodrachm". Lot 110 sold for 100,000 Swiss francs (excluding buyer's fee). The buyer's "premium" was 16,500 Swiss francs giving a total price of 116,500 Swiss francs. Moreover the newspaper report described the octodrachm: "προέρχεται από την περιοχή της αρχαίας Βισαλτίας και κόπηκε επί βασιλείας ενός Μοσσή".

The description of the coin in the Zurich sale describes it as "Apparently unique and unpublished". It is therefore not unreasonable to assume that this coin and the one described by the Thessaloniki newspaper are one and the same.

The auction house in question is a member of the International Association of Professional Numismatists (IAPN). The IAPN website states:

The IAPN is a non-profit organisation of the leading international numismatic firms founded 1951. The objectives of the Association are the development of a healthy and prosperous numismatic trade conducted according to the highest standards of business ethics and commercial practice.

A member of IAPN would no doubt wish to co-operate with the Interpol investigation into the coin.

I have contacted the London and Zurich offices of the coin dealership but have not received a reply.

But the story does not end there. A Washington lobbyist and legal officer to a cultural property research institute has questioned the story; indeed he is even an "avid collector" of Greek coins (though from Greek colonies in Southern Italy and Sicily). (The basis of his rejection seems to be the use of a stock photograph of an ancient coin to the illustrate the article in the Thessaloniki newspaper.) Moreover the same lobbyist works for a law firm that appears to be retained by the IAPN.

And the IAPN is one of three bodies that are involved with a FOIA request served on the US State Department (see details).

So why should a Washington lobbyist object to people drawing attention to a story? Should coin collectors be aware that Interpol could move against specific coins? Or does the Zurich seizure highlight an uncomfortable truth about recently surfaced coins?

Antiquities seized in Macedonia

Antiquities have been seized during a police raid in Macedonia, northern Greece ("Police find stolen antiquities in northern Greece", Associated Press Worldstream August 29, 2009). The objects had been hidden in an abandoned house at the village of Tholos. The finds included two Roman-period gravestones. One was decorated with relief, and the other, belonging to Julia Clara, carried an inscription covering 30 lines. Coins were among the other finds seized.

Is the archaeology of the Balkans under threat?

The archaeology of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) is under serious threat. In 2006 it was claimed that some 1 million artefacts had been smuggled out of the country in the fifteen years since its independence in 1991. Pasko Kuzman, head of the National Directorate for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, has called for the return of the Koreschnica krater that is said to have been removed from a sixth century BCE burial mound in the south of the country. It is reported to be in the possession of an unidentified New York collector.

The piece, used for mixing water and wine, is apparently similar to a krater found at Trebinshte in the closing stages of the First World War near the (present) boundary between FYROM and Albania.

The mound at Koreschnica covered an underground burial chamber buried under 3.8 m of rocks and rubble. The burial was looted during the 1990s. Finds are said to have included some 18 Illyrian bronze helmets, and three bronze warriors. The krater had been used to contain the cremated remains of the person buried here.

Elsewhere in the Balkans a hoard of Byzantine silver is said to have been found at Pazardzhik in Bulgaria during the 1990s. Pieces from it were acquired by several museums in Greece.

The scale of the problem in Bulgaria is massive. A report in 2007 suggested that some 16,000 archaeological pieces had been seized from looters in the preceding 10 month period.

Museums, private collectors, auction houses, dealers and archaeologists need to work together to put a stop to this large-scale destruction of the archaeological heritage of this part of Europe.

Whose Culture?: FYROM

David I. Owen has written a passionate essay, "Censoring knowledge: the case for the publication of unprovenanced cuneiform tablets", for Whose Culture? His focus is on Mesopotamia and his essay concludes,

"... concerted efforts ... must be made by local and international authorities to eliminate the organized looting and smuggling of antiquities" (p. 130).

I do not agree with Owen's overall position and I have discussed the AIA Policy on publication in my review of Cuno's Who Owns Antiquity?

Owen looks beyond Iraq in his essay. He reminds us of the scale of looting in the Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), "the estimated 1 million artifacts ... smuggled out of the country since independence in 1991 ..." (p. 138 n. 12) [see my earlier comments on this report]. Among the pieces discussed by archaeologists from the Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) is the Koreshnica krater, reported to be from an elite burial and said to reside in a New York private collection. The scale of the looting is indeed shocking and Owen is right to condemn it.

Ex Symes Bronze Sold at Bonhams

A Greek Daedalic bronze figure that had once passed through the hands of Robin Symes has been sold at Bonhams (London) for £9000 (lot 10). It is still not clear why Bonhams failed to declare this important part of the collecting history.

Other lots that have received comment here:

• lot 11: A Greek bronze situla, £8400
• lot 17: Attic bell-krater from the Graham Geddes collection, £8400

Another related lot that interested me:

• lot 37: Roman sarcophagus from the Graham Geddes collection, £4080

Bonhams: Greek Bronze Situla

One of the pieces that caught my eye in the April sale at Bonhams was lot 11: A large Greek bronze situla, circa 4th Century B.C. The estimate is £4,000 - £ 6,000.

The cited parallel is "Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, exhibition catalogue 1978, no. 332." This piece was found in a tomb at Kalamaria, a suburb of Thessaloniki.

This would suggest that the piece on offer at Bonhams could have been found in Macedonia. The situla appears to be complete and is likely to have been recovered from a tomb.

When was it found? Where has it been residing?

Why is there no collecting history provided for this situla?

What sort of checks have been made?

Coins, a metal-detector and Halkidiki

A pet-shop owner from Halkidiki in northern Greece has been arrested ("Greek man arrested with stash of antiquities", AP, February 13, 2009). Giorgos Tassiopoulos, the anti-crime squad director in Halkidiki, said that 1500 silver and bronze coins had been recovered from the man's home in the village of Nea Moudania (close to the ancient city of Olynthos); another 680 antiquities, including pots, lamps, terracotta figures and jewellery, were also found.

The police search also recovered a .22 handgun, and (according to the Athens News Agency, February 13, 2009) a metal-detector.

Archaeological Evidence for Looting in Antiquity

What is the archaeological evidence for looting in antiquity? The distribution of inscribed Middle Kingdom statues outside Egypt hint at systematic looting during the Second Intermediate Period. Inscribed silver plate from funerary contexts in Macedonia and the Kuban provide evidence for looted sanctuaries. Booty from sanctuaries in the Greek world appearing in contexts in Persia.

I will be addressing these issues in a conference paper today, "Booty and triumph", at "Rituals of Triumph in the Mediterranean World from Antiquity to the Middle Ages" hosted by the School of Humanities at Swansea University.

From North America to Athens: Further Returns Expected?

A contact has pointed me to a news story in today's Ta Nea (ΕΠΑΝΑΠΑΤΡΙΣΜΟΣ ΚΛΕΜΜΕΝΩΝ ΑΡΧΑΙΟΤΗΤΩΝ ΑΠΟ ΤΙΣ ΗΠΑ) (September 4, 2008). The article discusses the return of the two antiquities from the Shelby White collection. The calyx-krater, according to this report, was "stolen" from a "royal tomb" and was from the same workshop as the calyx-krater recovered from a tomb at Sevasti, Pieria (ο σπάνιος χάλκινος κρατήρας της συλλογής Γουάιτ είχε κλαπεί από βασιλικό τάφο και προερχόταν από το ίδιο εργαστήριο με αντίστοιχο που έχει βρεθεί σε τάφο του 4ου αι. π.Χ. στη Σεβαστή Πιερίας.).

However the report appears to be confused over one issue. It suggests that the (Former Yugoslav) Republic of Macedonia (FYRM)---the Skopje Government---was also trying to recover this calyx-krater. My understanding is that the officials of FYRM are seeking the return of the archaic "Koreschnica krater" from a North American private collection identified by Pasko Kuzman, director of the Cultural Heritage Protection Office (CHPO). This is said to be a volute-krater of "Trebenishte type", two centuries earlier than the Pieria calyx-krater. The monumental tomb is reported to be north of Demir Kapja, well within the frontier of FYRM. (I have been shown satellite imagery showing the alleged tomb's location.)

The report in Ta Nea notes that some 93% of the items in the Shelby White / Leon Levy exhibition, Glories of the Past, had no secure find-spot. This figure is derived from research conducted by Christopher Chippindale and David Gill and published in the American Journal of Archaeology.

Ta Nea concludes with the report that three items in the Michael C. Carlos Museum in Emory University are now the subject of an investigation by Greek authorities. Although the pieces are identified, I have requested a press release from Atlanta before I comment further on this story.

Shelby White and Greece: Antiquities in Athens

There were reports in the Greek press yesterday (August 26, 2008) that the two items from the Shelby White collection were now in the National Museum in Athens. (As I write there is no press statement on the Hellenic Ministry of Culture website.) The items are confirmed as:

• a bronze calyx-krater said to be from Pieria
• a fragmentary funerary stele from eastern Attica

The krater is described as being 70 cms high, with a silver wreath on the walls, and maenads under the handles. It looks as if this is the calyx-krater that featured in Greek Bronze Vessels from the Collection of Shelby White & Leon Levy (2005), 24-25, no 9 [further details]; indeed one of the maenads graces the cover. The newspaper report suggests that it came from a "royal tomb" (βασιλικό τάφο).

The funerary stele carries the personal names of Menon and Kleobolos. The link between the Shelby White fragment and the lower part excavated near Porto Rafti was made by George Despinis.

There is no further comment about the sources for the two pieces though the report does hint that the due diligence process was lacking (χωρίς να έχει ελεγχθεί η νομιμότητα της προέλευσής τους).

From September 23, 2008 the pieces will feature in the "Nostoi" exhibition at the New Akropolis Museum.

The Koreschnica Krater: Further Comments on the Tomb

I remain intrigued by the looting of the major burial at Koreschnica in the Republic of Macedonia. This is a good example of an elite burial that has been the target of a deliberate raid to supply objects for the antiquities market.

The burial chamber was some 4.5 m below the present ground level and had been covered by approximately 3.8 m of rocks and rubble. The burial chamber was some 8.5 m by 3.5 m, and 0.7 m high. However the monumental bronze krater had been placed in a separate area some 1.5 by 1.5 m, and 1.8 m high. Objects emerging from this tomb were not "chance finds".

My understanding is that iron supports have been inserted to stop the roof of the burial chamber from collapsing on the looters. The chamber apparently contained some 18 bronze helmets (some of Illyrian type).

This tomb contained a major grouping of objects whose contexts have now been lost - and the objects dispersed. There is much speculation about what they could be. Pasko Kuzman has suggested that the krater is now in a North American private collection.

Koreschnica is a good reminder that looting is still happening and that collectors continue to acquire.

Newly Surfaced Archaic Greek Objects

My attention has been drawn to two separate lots from the sale of "The Stanford Place Collection of Antiquities" auctioned at Christie's (London) on Wednesday April 26, 2006. (It is a collection I have discussed before.)

They illustrate some of the intellectual consequences of recently-surfaced antiquities.

• Lot 3: 'a Greek silver-gilt repoussé plaque'. 'circa 540-525 BC'. 'With winged Nike in a frontal chariot with facing quadriga, each pair of horses with heads turned to opposing sides, with finely incised details, bound lotus filling motifs, pierced around the edge for attachment, from an arm-guard'. 6.8 cm high. Unsold.
• Lot 18: 'Three Laconian bronze helmeted warriors'. '6th century BC'. 'Each animated nude standing figure standing with right arm outstretched to the side and left arm raised, with fists clenched, wearing tall crested helmet'. 6.4 cm high (max). £30,000.
  

Both were acquired from "Ward & Company Works of Art, New York", lot 3 in the "mid 1990s" and lot 18 in 1998.

Both pieces were accompanied by a certificate from The Art Loss Register.

The silver-gilt plaque is almost identical ("similar") to a more fragmentary example acquired by the Princeton University Art Museum in 2002 (and illustrated in the Record of the Princeton University Art Museum 62 [2003] 151-52 [JSTOR]):

• "Greek (North), mid-6th century B.C.: pierced appliqué plaque: frontal quadriga with Nike charioteer, gilt silver, h. 5.9 cm, w. 6.5 cm. Museum purchase, gift in memory of Emily Townsend Vermeule ... (2002-155)."

And does the "arm-guard" interpretation suggest that it was a part of a set of armour, perhaps from the burial of a warrior? Do the two plaques derive from the same deposit? Or were they just the products of the same workshop?

And the fact that there are three near identical bronze warriors also intrigues me. Were they found together? Or did they come from three separate private collections and converge, fortuitously, in the New York gallery? Do they need to be Laconian?

I am left asking some questions.

• Who owned the "Stanford Place" plaque and the warriors before they were purchased from Ward & Company Works of Art, New York?
• Who sold the plaque to Princeton? Does the plaque have a documented history?
• Do these pieces come from several locations or a single deposit?
• When were these pieces first known?
  
• Is the certificate issued by the Art Loss Register worthless?
  

All these pieces may, of course, have been in old documented collections (though I am surprised that the sale catalogue had not mentioned the fact).

What is needed is more transparency.

Vergina: Was Philip II's Tomb Looted in Antiquity?

The stunning finds from Tomb II at Vergina in Macedonia have frequently been taken to be associated with Philip II of Macedon. Eugene N. Borza and Olga Palagia have now talked about why they think the accepted interpretation is incorrect (Sara Goudarzi, "Alexander the Great's "Crown," Shield Discovered?", National Geographic News, April 23, 2008).

Borza comments:

Tomb II is a generation later than Philip II's death.

I agree with this interpretation as the weight inscriptions on the silver from Tomb II cannot, in my view, be earlier than the reign of Alexander the Great (if they were applied in Macedonia). My research (which is due to be published this summer) seems to be cited (without acknowledgement):

a number of silver vessels discovered in Tomb II and Tomb III are inscribed with their ancient weights, which use a measurement system introduced by Alexander the Great a generation after Philip II's death.

So where was Philip II buried? My hunch is that Tomb I is a likely candidate—and that it was looted in 274 BCE.

Who do I think was buried in Tomb II? You will have to wait and see ...

Image
The plain at Vergina from the Royal Palace © David Gill

Context Matters: The Derveni Krater

I noticed this initiative from the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA). They have launched a new series, "Ancient Art and Architecture in Context", with the publication of The Derveni Krater: Masterpiece of Classical Greek Metalwork (2008) by Beryl Barr-Sharrar.

The report of the lecture on April 3, 2008, noted:

The aim of the Ancient Art and Architecture in Context series, published with the support of the Getty Foundation, a groundbreaking concept, is to emphasize that ancient art found in Greece can only be properly understood by scholars if the provenance of the antiquities is known.

It then adds this comment from Charles Watkinson, Director of ASCSA Publications at Princeton:

In other words, we are making a very strong statement against the trade in illicit antiquities.

Context matters because looting has intellectual as well as material consequences.

Greece and Looted Antiquities

Greece is planning to take a tough stance on looted antiquities (Helena Smith, "The Parthenon marbles, and the rest please", Guardian Unlimited, January 24, 2008). Certainly there have been some recent successful claims: the Aidonia Treasure and several items from the J. Paul Getty Museum. But these are small scale when rated next to the successes of the Italian Government against North American museums, a dealer and a private collector.

The Guardian reported:

Within weeks of assuming the portfolio last September, Greece's culture minister, Michalis Liapis, reinvigorated the war against antiquities smuggling saying it had become "the highest of all our priorities."

"I have contacted all of my opposite numbers across Europe with the purpose of creating a common front to combat the illegal trafficking of antiquities. In recent years art looting has assumed gigantic proportions with the result that, worldwide, it has become the third most profitable form of organised crime after weapons and drug smuggling. That has to stop," he said.

As part of the new offensive a department dealing exclusively with clandestine antiquities, and reinforced by the presence of a public prosecutor, will be set up at the ministry. Already, the mammoth task of digitally archiving treasures has begun while security at archaeological museums around the country has been increased.

One of the areas hit by looting is Macedonia. Among the treasures returned to Greece is the gold wreath removed from a tomb near Serres. And this is a regional problem. Archaic tombs have been rifled over the international border in the Republic of Macedonia.

The Cyclades are another badly damaged area. Yet as recently as 2006 a North American museum hosted an exhibition of Cycladic sculptures that included material from the notorious "Keros haul".

Attitudes in the museum and collecting communities need to change. Looting has both material and intellectual consequences. And Greece needs to be supported in its determined efforts to protect this part of its cultural, indeed our cosmopolitan, heritage.

Image
© David Gill

The Koreschnica Krater: More on the Tomb

Looting in the Republic of Macedonia has been a serious problem. One of the tombs ransacked during the 1990s was at Koreschnica, north-west of Demir Kapija on the north side of the Vardar. I have now been sent details of the tomb said to contain 'the Koreschnica krater' (and I reproduce the plan of the tomb with the creator's permission).

Among the finds were three bronze warriors (no. 10) placed around the krater (no. 11) which contained cremated remains. The tomb also contained two shields and a number of Illyrian helmets.

Pasko Kuzman, head of the National Directorate for the Protection of Cultural Heritage in the Republic of Macedonia, would like the archaic krater (and the other contents) to be returned. Can any of the finds be identified in private or public collections?