“This agreement is based on decades of fruitful cooperation between the Greek government and the Metropolitan Museum of Art,” American Museum director Max Hollein told the New York Times, referring to Stern’s collection of 161 Cycladic figurines becoming Greek property. “We are delighted to have played our part in this agreement that will thrill and educate visitors and researchers now and for generations to come.”

The agreement referred to by the director of the Met was ratified a few weeks ago in Parliament at the initiative of the YPPOA and provides that the Stern collection becomes the property of the Greek state, but remains on display in the museum. American Museum for the next few years. Next Monday, the antiquities will be in the museum, and in November, 15 figurines will go to Greece for presentation in Museum of Cycladic Art. A year later, they will return to the Met, where they will be exhibited for ten years in a special room, which will depict the insignia of the Hellenic Republic. Subsequently, the figurines from the collection will be gradually returned to the Museum of Cycladic Art and Greek museums.

According to the NYT, businessman Leonard Stern began collecting figurines in 1981 and over the next 40 years totaled 161 figurines. The antiquities were kept in his personal library in his Fifth Avenue apartment in New York. Stern first approached the museum to exhibit his collection three years ago and, as he admitted to the newspaper, it would be difficult to donate the antiquities directly to the Met. “None of the major museums wants to offend the honor of countries by accepting their heritage if they do not have the blessing of the countries themselves,” he said.

In the meantime, archaeologists are expressing reservations about the YPPOA agreement, and in an interview with the Greek press, archaeologist Christos Tsirogiannis claims that one of the figurines of the collection can be found in the photo archive of the Italian antiquarian Bekina. YPPOA Sources point to “K” that no figurines from the collection have been identified in the stolen documents held by the competent authority.