TIRANA, Feb. 13 – Hundreds of artifacts illegally excavated and looted from the Apollonia archaeological park, southwestern Albania, apparently intended to be trafficked abroad, have been seized.
Police say three people have been arrested over the looting and several park officials, including its director, are under investigation for failing to prevent the robbery of 230 items in one of the country’s biggest archaeological sites aspiring to gain UNESCO World Heritage inscription. The illegal excavations are believed to have taken place for several months.
The seized bronze, iron and ceramic artifacts had been illegally obtained for trafficking purposes, an offence that is punished by up to 15 years in prison under Albania’s Criminal Code.
The looting of archaeological artifacts has haunted Albania since World War II. In 1967, when the country’s Stalinist communist regime outlawed religion, making Albania the world’s first official atheist country, thousands of churches and mosques were demolished or used for other purposes with much of the content either destroyed or sent to museums.
Albania also suffered massive looting of archaeological artifacts in the early 1990s as the communist regime was collapsing and during the 1997 turmoil triggered by some pyramid investment schemes.
Back in 2013, police recovered more than 1,00 religious and secular paintings dating back from the 15th to the mid-20th centuries, alleged to have been stolen from churches and cultural centers in Albania and neighboring Macedonia.
Earlier in 2009, the head of the Asclepius, the God of healing and medicine in Greek mythology, was brought back to the Butrint archaeological park, a UNESCO World Heritage site in southernmost Albania, from where it had been stolen in 1991 before ending up under the possession of an Italian collector who had bought it at a London auction.
The Apollonia medieval monastery and its landscaping were recently rehabilitated under an EU-funded €700,000 project to boost tourism in the country’s second largest cultural heritage destination.
Established in the 7th century B.C., by Greek settlers, the ancient city of Apollonia is located 11 km to the west of the modern city of Fier.
Among the most interesting monuments worth visiting are the Bouleterion (city council), the library, the triumphal arch, the temple of Artemis, the Odeon built in the 2nd century B.C., the two-storey 77 m long Stoa, a theater with a capacity 10,000 spectators, and the Nymphaeum, a monumental water fountain covering an area of 2000 m2.
The Apollonia park also features a museum with some of the most important artifacts discovered in the park.
Closed down on safety grounds in the early 1990s, the archaeological museum of Apollonia, reopened its doors in December 2011 after 20 years. The reopened museum in the south-western district of Fier, restored under UN assistance, features 750 archaeological items and ancient coin treasuries, previously stored at the Archaeology Institute of Tirana.
With a capacity of 10,000 to 12,000 seats, the Apollonia Theatre was one of the biggest of its kind in the Mediterranean and is the biggest ancient construction in Albania along with the Durres amphitheater.
Established as a local assembly and theatrical site, the theater turned into an arena for gladiator and animal fights. The theater’s activity stopped in the 4th century AD after its collapse.
A German-Albanian archaeological mission has been conducting excavations in Apollonia for more than a decade.
Excavations in the Apollonia park began during World War I by Austrian archaeologists. The process continues as it is believed that most of the city is still deep below Apollonia’s hills.
