Art News

Museum robbed at Greece’s Ancient Olympia; gunmen steal dozens of antiquities

ATHENS (AP).- Two masked gunmen stormed into a small museum at the birthplace of the ancient Olympics in southern Greece on Friday, smashing display cases with hammers and making off with dozens of antiquities up to 3,200 years old, authorities said. It was the second major museum theft in as many months in debt-crippled Greece, and a culture ministry unionist said spending cuts have compromised security at hundreds of museums and ancient sites across the country. With unemployment at 21 percent and Greece’s economy in its fifth year of recession, crime, poverty and homeless rates also have been increasing. Friday’s robbers targeted the museum of the ancient Games at Olympia, a few hundred yards (meters) away from the world heritage site’s main museum that contains priceless statues and bronze artifacts excavated at the holiest sanctuary of ancient Greece. Officials said 65 artifacts were stolen by the robbers, who tied up the only site guard, a 48-year-old woman. Culture Minis