Greece returns stolen statues to Albania

In a bit of a break with the traditional direction of these things, yesterday Greece returned two ancient statues of Artemis and Apollo that had been stolen from an Albanian museum in 1991.

The headless marble statues, one dating back to the 2nd century B.C. and the other to the 2nd century A.D., were handed to Albanian Culture Minister Ylli Pango in Athens today. They were recovered by the Greek authorities in 1997 and identified [6 years later] as having been stolen from the Butrint archaeological site in 1991.

The ceremony was heavily laden with commentary about the propriety of returning cultural patrimony to its rightful owner, and was held in the brand spanking new Acropolis Museum which just happens to have a place set aside for the Elgin Marbles should hell frieze over.