ATHENS, April 26 -- Greece hopes to become one of the first countries outside Russia to display the legendary treasure of King Priam, discovered in the last century at Troy, Greek Culture Minister Thanos Mikroutsikos said Wednesday. Speaking to reporters after a five-day visit to Moscow by a Greek delegation, Mikroutsikos said Greece had become the second country after Germany to be allowed access to the treasure, which is to be put on display at the Pushkin Museum in February 1996. Priam's treasure was discovered in 1873 by German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann at the site of ancient Troy, in present-day Turkey. Mikroutsikos said Greece may become the first country outside Russia to put the treasure on display, but some legal problems on the ownership first need to be sorted out. Both Germany and Turkey currently claim ownership of the treasure, which was kept in the Berlin Museum until 1945. Turkey says Schliemann took the treasure to Germany illegally and wants it back. The treasure disappeared from the Berlin Museum in 1945 after the Russian Red Army rolled into the city in the wake of the German defeat. Its whereabouts remained hidden until the collapse of Communism in Russia, when Moscow disclosed the treasure was being held in a Russian museum. Germany has since asked for it to be returned, but the Russian authorities cite legal problems about returning it. Two years ago, Russian President Boris Yeltsin on a visit to Athens promised Greece that it would be the first country outside Russia to be allowed to put the treasure on display.
Last month, Pushkin Museum Director Irina Antonova on a visit to Greece repeated the promise, the Greek culture minister said. Once the legal problems have been addressed, Greece should be able to put the treasure on display in 1997, Mikroutsikos said. Officials said a Greek delegation that just returned after a visit to Russia became the first official team after the Germans to be allowed access to the treasure at the Pushkin and Hermitage Museums. Members of the Greek delegation told reporters the jewelry was in excellent condition and 'there is no doubt that they are authentic, and belong to the Pre Hellenic period.' Aikaterini Dimakopoulou, director of the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, who was a member of the delegation, said 259 pieces of the collection are being kept at the Pushkin Museum and 414 at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. Priam was the last king of the Troy in ancient Phrygia, northwest Asia Minor, circa 1200 B.C. His reign was marked by the legendary 10- year Trojan War between Greeks and Trojans, after Priam's son Paris abducted the Greek King Menelaus' wife Helen.
