A German woman has returned the top of an ancient Greek column she took more than 50 years ago, bringing an end to the decades-long absence of the 2,400-year-old artifact from the birthplace of the Olympic Games.
The limestone Ionic column capital, measuring roughly 9 inches high and 13 inches wide, was taken from the Leonidaion, a 4th-century BC guesthouse in Ancient Olympia.
Greek officials said the relic was handed back during a ceremony on Friday at the Ancient Olympia Conference Center. The woman voluntarily surrendered it to Germany’s University of Münster, which organized its repatriation. She had taken the artifact during a visit in the 1960s and kept it for decades before deciding to return it, inspired by the university’s recent efforts to restitute looted antiquities.
The Greek Culture Ministry praised her “sensitivity and courage,” noting that her gesture demonstrates “it is never too late to do the right thing.”
The return marks the third major artifact the University of Münster has sent back to Greece in recent years. In 2019, it repatriated the Cup of Louis, linked to the first modern Olympic champion in 1896, and in 2024, it returned a marble male head from Roman-era Thessaloniki.
“This is a particularly moving moment,” said Culture Secretary General Georgios Didaskalos at the handover. “This act proves that culture and history know no borders but require cooperation, responsibility, and mutual respect. Every such return is an act of restoring justice and, at the same time, a bridge of friendship between peoples.”
Dr. Torben Schreiber, curator of the Archaeological Museum at the University of Münster, added, “It is never too late to do what is right, moral, and just.”
The Leonidaion — named after its benefactor, Leonidas of Naxos — is the largest structure in the Olympia sanctuary, featuring Ionic colonnades on all sides to host distinguished visitors. The returned fragment will now be conserved and displayed in Ancient Olympia.