Greece on Thursday returned a hoard of over 1,000 stolen ancient coins to Türkiye in the first repatriation of its kind between the historic rivals and neighbors.
The move came a few months after Türkiye publicly supported Greece in its long quest to reclaim the Parthenon Marbles from the British Museum in London.
Greek Culture Minister Lina Mendoni said the hoard of 1,055 silver coins had been seized by Greek customs guards on the border with Türkiye in 2019.
“These coins had been illegally imported,” Mendoni said at a ceremony at the Numismatic Museum, which specializes in currency and medal collections, in Athens.
Greeks are “particularly sensitive” to repatriation issues, she said.
“All illegally exported antiquities from whichever country should return to their country of origin,” Mendoni added.
Turkish Culture Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said the operation was the first repatriation from Greece.
Greek and Turkish experts determined that the coins were part of a stock hidden in Asia Minor between the late fifth and early fourth century B.C., she added.
While research is ongoing, it is possible the hoard was secreted in modern-day Türkiye during the Persian Wars expeditions of Athenian general Cimon, a veteran of the 480 B.C. Battle of Salamis, she added.
Most of the hoard consisted of tetradrachms, large ancient silver coins minted initially in Athens and widely circulated across the eastern Mediterranean, according to Museum Numismatologist Vassiliki Stefanaki, an expert in coinage.
Stamped with the image of an owl, the Athenian relics were also used locally to pay tribute to the Persian Empire, and Persian governors used them to reward their troops, she said.
Other coins came from Cyprus, the islands of Aegina and Milos, Asia Minor cities founded by Greek settlers, the Iron Age kingdom of Lydia, and Phoenicia in modern-day Lebanon, officials said.
Mendoni also thanked Türkiye on Thursday for supporting Greece’s campaign to secure the return of the Parthenon Marbles from London.
The British Museum has long maintained that the Marbles were removed from the Acropolis in Athens by royal decree granted to Lord Elgin, the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.
But in June, Zeynep Boz, the head of the Turkish Culture Ministry’s anti-smuggling committee, told a UNESCO meeting in Paris that no such document had been found in Ottoman archives.
Mendoni said Thursday that her statement was “decisive” in favor of Greece’s position.
Ersoy said Türkiye wanted “with all its heart” to see the Marbles return to Athens.
“The Greek people should have them; they belong to them,” he said.
Boz, who attended Thursday’s ceremony in Athens, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the timing of Greece’s return of the coins was not related to her report in June.
The five-year delay was caused by the time required by the Greek justice system to authorize the coins’ repatriation, she said.