Greek culture minister resigns over ancient Olympia theft
ATHENS — Greek Culture Minister Pavlos Geroulanos resigned Friday after masked armed robbers stole more than 60 ancient objects of “incalculable” value, including a gold ring, from a museum in Olympia.
Sixty-eight objects were whisked from a museum dedicated to the ancient Olympic Games after two masked men immobilized the museum’s sole female guard as she arrived for her early morning shift, officials said.
“There were two of them, and they had a gun,” Olympia Mayor Thymios Kotzias told Flash Radio. “They immobilized the guard as the shift changed at 7 a.m., having previously knocked out the alarm. The items were of incalculable value.”
He later told state television NET: “Clearly the museum’s security was insufficient ... to guard a global treasure.”
A ministry unionist said museums nationwide were more than 1,500 guards short of a full complement after over two years of layoffs imposed by the government in the entire public sector to address the country’s worst debt crisis in decades.
“All museums have suffered cuts, both in guards and archaeologists, the staff are no longer enough to operate at full shifts,” said Ioanna Frangou, general secretary of the union of shortterm culture ministry staff.
The government said Geroulanos had submitted his resignation over the incident, but it had not been immediately accepted by Prime Minister Lucas Papademos.
The minister rushed to the museum, some 300 kilometres southwest of Athens in the Peloponnese peninsula, the semi-state Athens News Agency said.
Olympia, birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games, is visited by hundreds of thousands of visitors annually.
Greece, rich in archaeological heritage, has been targeted by antiquity smugglers for decades. Authorities have long been unable to adequately guard key sites such as museums and Byzantine churches scattered across the country.
The incident occurred at the town’s second museum, which showcases nearly 500 objects related to the Games, such as clay vessels and bronze discs used in the events, stone tablets and bronze statues of athletes.
Kotzias said no security staff are actually present between 6 and 7 a.m., when the neoclassic early 20th century building is guarded by an electronic alarm.
“The museum had never been targeted before,” the mayor said.
The main Olympia museum, which is better guarded, features statues, architectural elements and offerings from the sprawling ancient complex where the Games were held from at least 776 BCE to 393 AD, when they were abolished by the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius.
The flame of the London 2012 Olympics is to be lit in a ceremony amid the ruins of the Temple of Hera, near the ancient stadium, on May 10.
This is the second major theft to embarrass Greek culture officials in a month.
In January, a painting personally gifted by Spanish- born master Pablo Picasso to Greece was stolen from the Athens National Gallery along with two other important artworks.