An ancient artefact that had been removed during German occupation was returned to Greece by the Municipality of Hannover and the August Kestner Museum. It is a threfoil oinochoe with a lid, dating to 620-600 BC, which preserves traces of painted decoration around the neck. The vessel had been brought to the Museum in 1986 by Professor of Geology Dr Hannfrit Putzer and, according to a letter accompanying it, it had been found by Germans in 1943 during excavations at the southern end of the Corinth Canal and handed over to him. Along with the letter was a sketch showing the location where the object was found.
Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni made the following statement on the repatriation of the Archaic oinochoe: “The August Kestner Museum joins the group of international museums which in recent years have made a significant effort to investigate issues of provenance in their collections. Museums whose staff has the courage to disclose the results of these investigations and to return to Greece objects found to be linked to illegal activities. The Municipality of Hannover lives up to its commitment to return cultural property stolen during the Nazi occupation to its rightful owners by returning antiquities to Greece. The decision of the Municipality of Hannover and the August Kestner Museum proves their willingness to contribute to repairing the damage done to Greece’s cultural heritage and to defend the reputation of the August Kestner Museum. The Greek state, from the first years after the end of the war, made systematic efforts to identify and repatriate the antiquities that were the spoils of the occupying forces. This effort continues, tirelessly, to this day by the competent Directorate of Documentation and Protection of Cultural Goods of the Ministry of Culture, and is steadily succeeding. Museums, such as the August Kestner Museum, that undertake such initiatives are valuable allies in this effort. I would like to express my sincere thanks to Mayor Belit Onay and Museum Director Anne Gemeinhardt, to the Consul General of Greece in Hamburg, Ioannis Vikelides, and to the officials of the Ministry of Culture who worked on the repatriation of the oinochoe”.
The August Kestner Museum, in an attempt to check the legality of provenance of the objects in its collections, commissioned Dr. Johannes Schwartz to undertake investigations regarding the historical truth. At the same time, the Museum requested the assistance of the Directorate for Documentation and Protection of Cultural Goods of the Ministry of Culture in order to document and confirm the origin of the object from the area mentioned in the Museum’s archives. After almost two years of exhaustive research, it was confirmed by the Museum that this was an object that had been illegally removed from Greece during the period of Nazi occupation.
At the ceremony at the August Kestner Museum, Mayor Belit Onay handed over the artefact to the Consul General of Greece in Hamburg, Ioannis Vikelidis, in the presence of the Director General of Antiquities, Olympia Vikatou, Head of the Directorate of Documentation and Protection of Cultural Goods Vasiliki Papageorgiou, Director of the August Kestner Museum Anne Gemeinhardt, Director of Collections Anna-Viola Siebert and representatives of the Greek community.