Greek police have not found the Olympic museum’s stolen artefacts. Ta Nea have reported that ‘the possibility that objects from the recent robbery at the Olympia Museum are included amongst the finds has been excluded [Αποκλείστηκε το ενδεχόμενο μεταξύ των ευρημάτων να περιλαμβάνονται αντικείμενα της πρόσφατης ληστείας στο Μουσείο της Ολυμπίας]‘.
I have updated the main post on the capture of the 44-member illicit antiquities gang and the update on the rumour.
The police have released more information:
- to avoid revealing their activities in phone conversations (which might have been – and were – wiretapped and recorded), ‘the defendants used using code words, like “lentils” for coins, “little Larissas” for finds from Thessaly or “little Philips” for Macedonia [οι κατηγορούμενοι χρησιμοποιούσαν συνθηματικές φράσεις, όπως «φακές» για τα νομίσματα, «λαρισάκια» για ευρήματα από τη Θεσσαλίας ή «φιλιππάκια» για τη Μακεδονία]‘, and the mastermind was codenamed Takis;
- his gang even smuggled and sold antiquities into the U.S. market;
- the police have identified a contact in Italy, who had ancient coins and who had sent remittances back to the gang in Greece; and
- one of the coins may have been an extremely rare Hellenistic silver tetradrachm of Zeus or Heracles.
