The General Directorate of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage clarified that Plato’s sacred olive tree which stood at Iera Odos until 1976 was uprooted on October 7, 1976, after a bus ran into it. The broken part of it was transferred to the Agricultural University of Athens, were it has been preserved and displayed since then. The tree has not been stolen to serve as firewood, as it was reported last week by local and international media.

In its place, a new tree was planted by the Agricultural University of Athens. This tree had three trunks of 30 cm diameter each. One of them has been removed on January 6, 2013, but according to the General Directorate of Antiquities, it was dead. The other two remain intact.