Thieves steal artifacts from museum of birthplace of Olympics

Feb 17, 2012, 10:25 GMT

Athens - Armed thieves tied up a museum guard in the birthplace of the Olympic Games in central Greece and made off with between 60 and 70 priceless bronze and clay artifacts, police said Friday.

Greece's Culture Minister Pavlos Geroulanos tendered his resignation over the incident to Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, radio reports said. It is not known if the prime minister will accept.

According to authorities, two robbers wearing black hoods used hammers and smashed their way into the museum, in Archaia Olympia, early Friday. They tied and gagged the only employee, a woman who was on duty, and then stole the valuable ancient relics.

The robbers broke dozens of display cases, removing mainly bronze and clay objects as well as a gold ring, police said.

Police have set up roadblocks in the area in an effort to locate the robbers, while Olympia Mayor Efthimios Kotzas said security needed to be improved at the site.

'Security needs to be improved - we are dealing with a museum which is filled with priceless treasures and a piece of world heritage has now been lost to these thieves,' he told state television NET.

Archaeological experts were assessing the damage and the exact number of items stolen from the museum, which is located next to the site where the ancient Olympics were held.

Authorities were preparing the ceremony at the museum on May 10 for the lighting of the Olympic flame for the London Games.

Friday's robbery is the second major museum theft in the past two months in Greece. In January, unidentified robbers broke into the National Gallery in central Athens and made off with an early work of Pablo Picasso, entitled 'Head of a Woman' as well as a painting by Dutch painter Piet Mondrian.

Two years of severe austerity cuts have forced the Culture Ministry to cut down on security guards and staff at hundreds of museums around the country.