With eye on British Museum, Greece welcomes back ancient art

By DEREK GATOPOULOS and THEODORA TONGAS
Associated Press

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece has welcomed the return of ancient artifacts from the Acropolis, furthering a campaign to press the British Museum to hand back a collection of sculptures taken from the ancient site in Athens more than 200 years ago. Culture Minister Lina Mendoni led a ceremony Friday for the repatriation of three sculpture fragments — representing a horse and two male heads — from the Parthenon temple on the Acropolis which had been kept at the Vatican Museums. The fragments will be added to the collection at the Acropolis Museum, which opened in 2009 at the foot of the ancient site in the center of the Greek capital.