Antiquity that had been removed, during the period of the German occupation, was returned to Greece, by the Municipality of Hanover, Germany and the August Kestner Museum. It is a trefoil-shaped wine decanter with a stopper, dating to 620-600 BC, which preserves traces of written decoration around the neck. The vase was brought to the Museum in 1986 by Geology professor Dr. Hannfrit Putzer and, according to an accompanying letter, it had been found by Germans in 1943 during excavations at the southern end of the Corinth Canal and handed over to him. Along with the letter was a scribble that gave the location where the object was found.

The Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni about the repatriation of the archaic oinochoe made the following statement: “The August Kestner Museum joins the group of international museums, which in recent years have made a significant effort to investigate questions of the origin of the objects in their collections. Museums, whose executives have the courage to disclose the results of their investigations and to return to Greece the objects that they find to be connected to illegal acts. The Municipality of Hanover, in implementation of its commitment to return cultural goods that were stolen, during the Nazi occupation, to their rightful owners, is returning antiquity to Greece. The decision of the Municipality of Hanover and the August Kestner Museum is the practical proof of their will to contribute to the restoration of the damage suffered the cultural heritage of Greece, but also to defend the reputation of the August Kestner Museum. The Greek state, from the first years, after the end of the war, made systematic efforts to locate and repatriate the antiquities that were looted by the occupying forces. This effort continues, tirelessly, to this day by the competent Directorate of Documentation and Protection of Cultural Properties of the Ministry of Culture, bearing steady fruits. Museums, such as the August Kestner Museum, that undertake such initiatives are our valuable allies in this effort. I express my warm thanks to the Mayor Belit Onay and the Director of the Museum Anne Gemeinhardt, to the Consul General of Greece in Hamburg Ioannis Vikelidis and to the officials of the YPPO who worked for the repatriation of the winemaker”.

The August Kestner Museum, in an attempt to check the legitimacy of the provenance of the items in his collections, assigned to Dr. Johannes Schwartz to investigate the historical truth of the information. At the same time, he requested the assistance of the Directorate of Documentation and Protection of Cultural Properties of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the archaeological documentation and the confirmation of the origin of the object, from the area mentioned in the Museum’s archives. After almost two years of exhaustive research, it was confirmed by the Museum that this is an object that had been illegally removed from Greece during the Nazi occupation.

At the ceremony yesterday at the August Kestner Museum, in an atmosphere of special emotion, Mayor Belit Onay handed over the seniority to the Consul General of Greece in Hamburg Ioannis Vikelides, in the presence of the General Director of Antiquities Olympia Vikatos, the Head of the Directorate of Documentation and Protection of Cultural Properties Vasiliki Papageorgiou, the Director of the August Kestner Museum Anne Gemeinhardt, the Director of the Anna-Viola Siebert Collections and representatives of the diaspora.