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Greek police have discovered a huge cache of ancient artefacts including an entire Byzantine chapel in two privately-owned villas in a case with possible links to former Getty Museum curator Marion True, the officer heading the operation said Friday.
The double raid took place on Wednesday at the affluent Athens suburb of Psychiko and the small islet of Schinousses in the Cyclades in the southeastern Aegean Sea, yielded 142 items dating from prehistoric to Byzantine times, George Gligoris, head of the special Greek police unit against antiquities trafficking, told AFP.
Among the items recovered was a disassembled Byzantine chapel incorporating ancient columns, and a number of marble busts, vessels, furniture parts and even Early Christian textile pieces, the police said.
Greek newspapers on Friday described the discovery as potentially the largest of its kind in recent Greek history, and linked the case to the trial in Italy of Getty Museum curator Marion True, who is accused of conspiring to traffic in stolen antiquities.
Gligoris said the Schinousses villa -- which True had visited -- belongs to Dimitra Papadimitriou, a member of a Greek shipping family currently residing outside the country. The Psychiko villa also belongs to the Papadimitriou family.
Greek investigators have established that the late brother of Dimitra Papadimitriou, Christos Michaelides, was an associate of prominent London-based antiquarian Robin Symes, who had provided the Getty with antiquities at a time when True served as the museum's curator. Michaelides died in 1999 in Orvieto, Italy.
On April 3, the Greek police raided a villa owned by True on the Greek Cycladic island of Paros, and seized 17 undeclared ancient artefacts.
Greece is currently suing the Getty for the return of four objects in the museum's possession.
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AFP 141741 GMT 04 06
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