New Research Tracks Ancient Artifacts Looted by the Nazis
The New York Times
Scholars are increasingly focusing attention on the seizure and excavation of antiquities from Greece and other countries by German forces during World War II.
When the Nazis invaded Greece in 1941, Julius Ringel, a major general in the German army, took an active role in initiating illegal excavations on the island of Crete, where Minoan culture had flourished more than 3,000 years earlier.
The land was rich with artifacts from the island’s cultural heritage and Ringel, often aided by his troops, carted off all sorts of ceramics, vases, parts of statuary, some for his own gain and some to be sent back to German museums as the spoils of war.
Ringel, commander of the Fifth Mountain Division, also looted ancient treasures that had already been discovered. He confiscated antiquities from the Villa Ariadne, the former home of the British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans, which he converted into the division’s headquarters. He stole others from a locked room at the ancient palace of Knossos, a five-acre archaeological site that was the center of Minoan culture, according to experts.
