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Athens (dpa) - A Greek public prosecutor pressed charges Tuesday against a former curator of the Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles for illegally purchasing an ancient artifact and smuggling it out of the country more than a decade ago.
Greece is currently cracking down on the illegal trade of ancient artefacts and has vowed to return all objects which have been proven to be illegally smuggled out of the country.
The Athens News Agency reported that the museum's former antiquities curator Marion True along with two other foreigners and two other Greek nationals were charged with antiquity theft of a 4th-century BC gold wreath.
The wreath, which was discovered during an illegal dig of an ancient Macedonian tomb in northern Greece, was sold to Getty officials for 1.15 million dollars (898,000 dollars) in 1993.
The American museum has been involved in an international art smuggling scandal after a former antiquities curator, Marion True, was charged last year in Rome with conspiring to deal in looted antiquities.
Her villa on the island of Paros has been raided twice in the past two months, where Greek detectives discovered dozens of unregistered antiquities.
In August, Greece secured the return of two ancient artifacts from the museum which were illegally smuggled out of the country - a 2,400-year-old black limestone stele grave marker and a marble votive relief dating from 490 BC.
Archaeologists said the grave marker was taken illegally out of the country in the early 90s while the votive relief was stolen from the warehouses of the French Archaeological School on the northern Aegean island of Thasos.
Greek officials are currently in negotiations with the Getty Museum to secure the return of two other ancient relics, among them the disputed gold funerary wreath and a 6th century BC marble statue of a woman.
In return for the items, Greece has promised the Getty other artifacts on long-term loans and it will be invited to co-host exhibitions of ancient Greek art.
Copyright 2006 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
