Olympia museum robbery suspects remanded; plead poverty

Two of the three arrested for the Olympia museum robbery have been remanded and one has been released; at least two others, and maybe more, are still wanted.

There is DNA evidence tying the 41-year-old “mastermind” to the tools used in the crime (through material left at the scene of the crime), and he has accepted total responsibility; but the evidence suggests that he must have had at least one (equal) partner-in-crime, not just odd-job men.

aside: there was false hope of solving Olympia museum robbery case in October (and July, May, April, March, February)

While trying to improve my Google alerts (particularly the Greek- and Turkish-language ones), I found yet another moment of false hope in the Olympia museum robbery case. I haven’t recorded them here in order to make the police look bad: false leads and dead ends are inevitable parts of police investigations; and this is a success that the Greek police deserve to celebrate (if for no other reason than out of relief that it ‘has proven its effectiveness‘ (ή ότι έχει ‘μία απόδειξη της αποτελεσματικότητας της’)).(1)

However, there were several, significant “false leads” (or misleadings of the public), and these need to be documented.

Olympia museum robbery: three local, Greek suspects arrested in police sting

Three local, Greek suspects have been arrested for the robbery of the Museum of the History of the Olympic Games on the 17th of February 2012. (See here for an outline of events. Hat tip to nick_arch, through whom I first heard of the arrests (1).)

(over-analysis of) advertising unread books for payment-in-kind

Last month, the marketing coordinator of a publishing company got in touch with me, gave me information about a book on the recovery of illicitly-traded antiquities, and asked me if I could upload the details (of the book and for its purchase) onto Conflict Antiquities. In return, they would send me a free copy and offer my readers a 20% discount. (I will neither give the details nor get the free book, but I have provided sufficient information that readers can find the discount elsewhere.) This raises several issues.

a note on digging antiquities under economic duress

Yesterday, a Nigerian newspaper, Vanguard, published Antiquities Trade in Nigeria: Looting in the Midst of Crisis, which was a partial reprint of my review of the Nigerian antiquities trade. (While I’m very happy that they did that, they did it without my knowledge; and they haven’t yet replied to my tweet or my e-mail; so I don’t know why they only published part of it, if they will publish the rest of it, etc.)