A precious ancient Greek column head dating to the 4th century BC that has been returned from Germany was the subject of a special repatriation ceremony that took place at the Ancient Olympia Conference Center.
The fragment of the Ionic column capital (as is the archaeological term) comes from the Leonidaion of Ancient Olympia and was removed illegally in the 1960s.
According to an announcement by the Ministry of Culture, it is a fragment of an Ionic capital, made of limestone, which preserves some plaster in places. It has maximum surviving dimensions of 24 cm (9.5 inches) height by 33.5 cm (13.2 inches) width and shows stylistic similarities with published Ionic capitals from the site of Ancient Olympia.
The Leonidaion, named after its donor Leonidas of Naxos, is located outside Altes, in the southwestern part of the sanctuary of Olympia. It is the largest building in the sanctuary measuring 74.80 m. (82 yards) by 81.08 m. (88.7 yards ), with characteristic Ionic arcades on the outside on all four sides.
Leonidaion was erected in the second half of the 4th century BC and served as accommodation premises for prominent visitors to the sanctuary. Its northern part had already been uncovered during the first German excavations in Olympia, between 1875 and 1881, while its excavation was completed during the 1953-1956 period.
The repatriation of the ancient Greek column head
The repatriation of the capital was made possible thanks to the sensitivity and courage of a German woman, who had owned it since the 1960s, after collecting it from the Leonidaion area during a visit to the site. Motivated by the recent returns of important antiquities from the University of Münster to their countries of origin, she decided to hand it over to the university. In turn, the university returned the precious ancient Greek column head to Greece and Ancient Olympia.
The University of Münster has collaborated before with Greece’s Ministry of Culture in proving to be a constant collaborator in the return of cultural treasures to their place of origin. In 2019, it proceeded with the return of the so-called skoufos (skull cup) of Spyros Louis, the Olympic champion runner at the first Olympic Games in Athens in 1896, which is currently exhibited at the Museum of the Ancient Olympic Games, their birthplace. In 2024, Münster returned a Roman marble male head from a cemetery in Thessaloniki, which now adorns the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki.
Dr. Torben Schreiber, curator of the Archaeological Museum of the University of Münster, stressed the Museum’s firm will to return any object that proves to be the product of illegal trafficking, stating that it is never too late to do the right, the moral and the just. During the repatriation ceremony, the Secretary General of Culture, Georgios Didaskalou, thanked the representatives of the Archaeological Museum of the University of Münster and stated: “This is a particularly moving moment. This act proves that culture and history know no borders but require cooperation, responsibility and mutual respect. Every such return is an act of restoring justice and at the same time a bridge of friendship between peoples.”
