[Shutterstock]
A police raid on properties belonging to the prominent Papadimitriou shipping family in Schoinoussa and Attica uncovered five antiquities and nine religious icons suspected of falling under Greek heritage protection laws.
The searches, carried out Monday, coincided with the retrial of a 2006 case involving dozens of ancient artifacts found at the family’s villa. Dimitris Papadimitriou was briefly detained but released on a prosecutor’s order.
Authorities have launched a preliminary investigation to verify the origins of the objects.
A case file was also opened against Despina Papadimitriou for the Byzantine icons found. The family argues the objects were already documented in the 2006 case and that some do not qualify as antiquities.
Back then, authorities seized 152 items, ruling 69 as protected artifacts. Some were sent to museums, while others remained embedded in the villa’s structure.
In 2022, an appeals court acquitted the Papadimitrious of monument embezzlement, citing insufficient proof. However, Greece’s Supreme Court overturned the verdict, leading to a retrial now under way.