Greek police crack Olympia robbery

PATRAS - Agence France-Presse

In this image made available Nov. 24, 2012, by Greek Police, an array of ancient artifacts are displayed by police after they were recovered.

Greece officials announced on November 25 they had solved an embarrassing museum robbery in Olympia in February after a police sting operation netted three suspects and recovered dozens of archaeological artifacts.

Earlier on November 24, police said they had arrested three Greek men aged between 36 and 50, and were seeking another two suspects.

The three were arrested at a hotel in the city of Patras late on November 23 after one of them tried to sell the Bronze Age gold ring for 300,000 euros ($387,000) to an undercover officer posing as a potential buyer.

The original asking price had been 1.5 million euros, the police said.

Officers were then dispatched to a village near Olympia where they found the remaining artefacts buried inside a sack in a field.

“The discovery and arrest of the perpetrators of the robbery and the recovery of the stolen items are a great success,” deputy education minister responsible for culture Costas Tzavaras said in a statement.
Back in February, a pair of armed robbers made off with nearly 80 artefacts from a museum dedicated to the ancient Olympic Games.