http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/22/greece
Veteran politicians were yesterday rallying around an Oxford-educated
businessman whose efforts to protect Greece's cultural heritage - including
Athens's historic Plaka quarter - have won plaudits abroad but earned him
enemies at home and a possible prison sentence.
Costa Carras, the Anglo-Greek scion of a shipping family, who founded a
conservation society that has been likened to Britain's National Trust,
spent three days in the cells of the capital's security police headquarters
after being accused of one of Greece's worst cultural crimes: illegal
ownership of ancient artefacts.
The charge, which followed a police swoop on his home and his organisation's
premises, has outraged supporters who claim Carras is the victim of a smear
campaign. For many, his ordeal has highlighted the perils of championing
aesthetic and environmental matters in one of the EU's least
conservation-minded countries.
"It is ludicrous that authorities should attack the one person who has spent
a lifetime preserving the items and ideas that the authorities themselves
are supposed to protect," said Stefanos Manos, a former conservative
politician who twice served as environment minister. "It says a lot about
corruption in this country. In doing the right thing, Costa has upset
people."
The ex-Harrovian, who could face a lengthy prison sentence, was remanded in
custody after police and archaeology service inspectors confiscated three
Russian icons and other items from his home in the Plaka district. Two large
earthenware pots and parts of an olive press were seized from the Plaka
offices of his organisation, the Hellenic Society for the Protection of the
Environment and Cultural Heritage. In both cases, Carras, an officially
declared collector, says he notified the appropriate department at the
culture ministry and archaeological service.
"Archaeologists responsible for private collections always refused to
catalogue the three icons that were Russian while documenting the 50 Greek
ones," said the conservationist's wife, Lydia, a documentary film-maker who
also sits on the society's board.
...
Dave Welsh
Unidroit-L Listowner
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Unidroit-L
dwelsh46@cox.net
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