THE CHEAT SHEET. Beware of Greeks bearing artefacts

Because they might be stolen. Strapped for cash in an extended economic recession, Greeks are now turning to theft.

Antiquities, artefacts from the ancient past that have incalculable value today, are going missing around Greece. And apparently, it’s being stolen by ordinary Greeks, with no criminal records.

A recent report by National Geographic said Greek authorities have found a definite proxy to prove that ordinary Greeks are responsible for these thefts — the sale of metal detectors.

If you’re hunting for ancient coins, let’s say, or other artefacts, a metal detector comes in handy. So the Greek government has long had a policy in place where such metal detectors can only be sold and licensed to people without a criminal history. But suddenly, the demand for such permits and purchases of detectors have shot up.

The government itself has admitted that illegal excavations and theft of cultural artefacts have increased since the economic crisis began five years ago. Traditional smugglers dealt in arms, narcotics, and ancient artefacts. Now, with severe austerity conditions bearing down on them, ordinary Greeks too are raiding their ancient places to make some easy money.

A 12th-century Byzantine New Testament was returned to Greece in 2014 after it had been stolen from a monastery in Mt Athos, wound its way across the world, and ended up in an American museum. The country also lost a cache of neolithic figurines, vessels, and statue parts in 2011 from the Cyclades islands with an estimated value of almost € 20 million. Farmers, construction workers, ranchers form the first link in the smuggling chain now, with some even being arrested in the last few years.

Greece is not new to theft of its antiques — it’s been around forever and there are whole police teams commissioned to monitor ancient sites, patrol borders and artefact recovery teams. But the increase in the sheer number of thefts is getting hard to control. As the director-general of antiquities and cultural heritage in Greece said: “It’s impossible not to find antiquities in Greece; they are literally everywhere.”

The latest austerity measures ends tax benefits, raises the retirement age, makes healthcare more expensive and deregulates fuel. As a result, unemployment has risen, especially among young people, public spending on healthcare has been cut (HIV infection rates shot up because condoms and syringes were in short supply; disease prevention schemes have been rolled back) and Greeks don’t earn enough to cover their own healthcare costs, and the suicide rate has gone up.

Yes, and it’s getting difficult to catch the thieves because with government funding cut, police departments are underpaid and understaffed. It also becomes a lot more difficult to do the negotiations required to get stolen artefacts back into the country. Most end up in museums or private collections after a circuitous route around the world and the final owners know that the Greeks can’t afford litigation to get the artefacts back. Which is sad, because this is centuries of heritage being looted and there is not much that can be done to stop it.

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