The Salzburg Museum in Austria said it would hand back to Russia a trove of ancient Hellenic relics plundered during World War II
SOCHI (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th May, 2019) The Salzburg Museum in Austria said it would hand back to Russia a trove of ancient Hellenic relics plundered during World War II.A restitution certificate was issued for eight objects. Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen presented it to Russia's Vladimir Putin during their meeting in Sochi earlier in the day.
The five grave reliefs and three amphora vessels date as far back as the fourth century B.C., a part of the period when ancient Greeks colonized the shores of the Black Sea, according to the museum's website.
A Nazi officer of Austrian descent stole the treasures from the Historical Archaeological Museum in Temryuk in Russia's southwest and sent them to his home in Salzburg. They will be returned next fall.
In turn, Russia has promised Austria a digital copy of East and West, a 1923 silent movie filmed in Austria and preserved since the Soviet times at the state movie archive.
