During her recent visit to the US, Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni attended various meetings and events, promoting Greece-U.S. cultural relations. The highlight of her trip was the repatriation ceremony at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art of an ancient bronze griffin’s head, which had been stolen from a museum in Olympia in 1936. Max Hollein, the director of the MET, called the object “one of the finest existing cast-bronze griffins’ heads” in the museum’s ancient collection. While the repatriation process has been ongoing for several years now, as Minister Mendoni stated, “what makes this particular repatriation especially noteworthy is that it was not the result of a formal restitution claim by Greek authorities. Instead, it was The MET itself that took the initiative in 2018 to investigate the origin of this griffin head, which had been part of its Greek and Roman antiquities collection since the early 70s following a private donation.”
While in New York, Minister Mendoni also received 11 ancient Greek artifacts from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, handed over by the Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bogdanos. Along with the Consul General of Greece in New York, Ifigenia Kanara, Minister Mendoni lauded the partnership between the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and the Greek Government that led to the return of the artifacts. She also bestowed Matthew Bogdanos with the Medal of the Order of the Phoenix for his extensive contributions to the repatriating process.
In Washington DC, Minister Mendoni had a productive meeting with the U.S. Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy, Darren Beattie, and the U.S. Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, Scott Weinhold. The meetings centered on combating the illicit trafficking of antiquities and on ways of enhancing Greece-U.S. cooperation.
Source: Embassy of Greece in Washington, D.C.
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