On this day, April 12, in 1990, robbers plundered more than $2 million in ancient artifacts in the largest theft in Greek history.
In the early morning, four robbers broke into the Museum of Corinth, overcame a security guard, then walked out with 285 objects, many of them excavated in 1866 by the American School of Classical Studies.
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The valuable pieces dated to the fifth century B.C., including a sculpted marble kouros head and 14 other marble sculptures, 40 black Attic vases, 85 Corinthian vases and 49 terra-cotta figurines.
The artifacts remained missing for nine years. Then, in 1999, FBI agents in Miami found 12 boxes with 274 items packed among crates of fish.
Five people, all Greek nationals, were implicated in the robbery, including Tryfonas Karahalios, and his two sons, Tryfonas and Anastasios, and his wife. Anastasios was sentenced to life in prison, the severest sentence handed down for an archeological-related crime in Greece. Tryfonas and his namesake are believed to be hiding out somewhere in South America.
