BEIRUT: Lebanon handed back two 18th-century religious icons of Jesus and Mary to Greece on Tuesday after they were seized during an auction, a judicial source said.
The paintings were stolen from an exhibition in Athens in 2016, and Greece put out an international notice calling for their return. Icons are Christian religious paintings, often of saints, and are viewed as sacred.
Lebanon has launched an investigation, but it is not clear who stole them, or how they were brought to the country. "The person who bought the paintings at the auction in Lebanon was questioned," the source said, adding that the buyer was about to ship them to Germany "to sell them on at an international auction there." The paintings were handed to the Greek ambassador in Beirut. Greece has retrieved several other religious icons worth thousands of dollars in recent years.
In 2011, Greek officials blocked the sale of a dozen religious icons by two art galleries in Britain and the Netherlands after finding the items had been stolen years before. The icons, which dated from before the 18th century and could have each fetched from $7,000 to $21,000, were stolen from unguarded monasteries and churches in the sparsely-populated Epirus region of northwestern Greece.
Former US president Donald Trump. — AFP NEW YORK: The judge overseeing former US president Donald Trump’s...
Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik. — AFP FileSARAJEVO: The parliament of Bosnia´s autonomous Serb Republic adopted...
Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks during the opening ceremony of the 6th China International Import...
Indonesia's Ruang volcano. — AFP JAKARTA: Indonesia shut a provincial airport and evacuated hundreds of people...
Myanmar’s detained former leader and Aung San Suu Kyi. — AFP LONDON: Myanmar’s detained former leader and Aung...
President Ruto is seen with the chief of the Kenya Defence Forces General Francis Ogolla in this photo on 28 February....