Letter from Athens

For several months, Greek police from the General Directorate of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage conducted an undercover operation on the slopes of Mount Chelmos, in the northern Peloponnese.

The officers learned from an anonymous source that an antiquities trafficking operation was underway in the region. They posed as intermediaries for a buyer and in cafés or near deserted roads met several individuals suspected of being involved in such trafficking, including a man known as "Jackson," who had already been arrested for the illegal trade of antiquities. In October 2008, he was found in possession of an 80-centimeter fragment of an ancient column, an amphora, 31 photographic negatives depicting terracotta figurines, ancient vases or coins, as well as a truck apparently intended for transporting these objects abroad, according to the newspaper I Kathimerini.

When they learned that a clergyman was offering stolen religious objects, the police − though initially skeptical − decided to follow up on the lead. After several phone exchanges, they arranged to meet in early September the abbot of the Mega Spilaion Monastery, near the village of Kalavryta.

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