In a major blow to antiquities trafficking, the dedicated team of Manhattan Deputy District Attorney Matthew Bogdanos, in collaboration with the Greek Ministry of Culture, has successfully seized 29 artifacts of significant historical value. These items, dating from the Late Neolithic period (5000–4000 BCE) to the Late Hellenistic era (2nd–1st century BCE), were today officially returned to Greece, their place of origin.
The collection includes exemplary works of sculpture, metallurgy, and ceramics. Highlights include two Neolithic stone axe heads (5000–4000 BCE), a Minoan agate seal depicting a goat (3100 BCE), three marble Early Cycladic vessels (2700–2400 BCE), a Mycenaean stirrup jar (1200–1100 BCE), two bronze belt fittings from Western Macedonia (7th century BCE), a bronze furniture foot shaped as a siren from a Laconian workshop (c. 600 BCE), a marble kouros head (mid-6th century BCE), a bronze Medusa Gorgoneion likely from a Corinthian workshop (late 6th century BCE), a bronze coiled serpent ornament (5th century BCE), a gold pendant (5th–4th century BCE), two iron sacrificial knives (5th–4th century BCE), three silver conical cups (c. 300 BCE), and a bronze attachment with the head of Atalante (2nd–1st century BCE).
