A 2,000-year-old statue was found discarded next to garbage cans in Greece

Greek police said on Wednesday they were investigating how an ancient Greek statue was dumped in a black plastic bag next to rubbish bins north of Thessaloniki.

Organized crime unit said that it was investigated “After a 32-year-old man went to police to dispose of a statue he found in a black bag next to bins.”

According to a preliminary assessment by the archaeological service, the headless statue dates back to the Hellenistic period (between 323 and 31 BC), the police said in a statement. Officials also released a photo of the 32-by-10-inch statue.

It will be handed over to a criminal investigation team in northern Greece for laboratory tests, and then to the antiquities service for appraisal and conservation.

The police have long had to deal with the illegal trafficking of antiquities because of the number of artifacts from ancient Greece all over the country.

Road and construction work in Greece still regularly uncovers new finds from that period.

Ancient statues have been found in garbage cans in Europe before. In 2023, it was a statuette of Venus from the Roman era discovered In a landfill in Rennes, France. In the same year, ancient bronze statues a garbage dump in Tuscany, Italy.

In 2013, an 1800-year-old carved stone head depicting a Roman god was found. ancient garbage dump in England.