Germany returns antique jug stolen by Nazis to Greece

The municipality of Hanover and the German August-Kestner Museum have returned to Greece an ancient jug from the 7th century BC, discovered during the Nazi occupation (1940-1944), the Greek Ministry of Culture said on Tuesday April 9. This ceramic pot “with cap and including traces of written decoration around the neck” was donated to the German Museum in Hanover in 1986 by geology professor Hannfrit Putzer, according to a ministerial press release. A letter accompanying this donation stated that "the jug was discovered by the Germans in 1943 during excavations south of the Corinth Canal."

“The August Kestner Museum joins the group of international museums which have made significant efforts in recent years to investigate the origin of the objects in their collections” and “to return to Greece objects linked to illegal acts”, welcomed Minister Lina Mendoni, quoted in the press release.

According to the minister, the decision of the municipality and the museum is "proof of their desire to contribute to the restoration of the damage suffered by Greek cultural heritage" and "of Greece's systematic efforts after the end of the war, to locate and repatriate antiquities looted by the occupying forces.”

In recent years, numerous foreign institutions and collectors have returned pieces of its ancient heritage to Greece. Last year, the Vatican returned to the country three fragments of the Parthenon that it had kept for more than two centuries. Greece has been waging a battle for decades to also obtain the return of the Parthenon friezes which are in the British Museum in London, but so far without result.