The capital of the column, made of limestone and measuring nine inches high and 33.5 cm 13 inches wide, was taken from the Leonidaion, a 4th-century BC guesthouse. Greece Culture Ministry

A German woman who stole the top of an ancient column in Olympia over half a century ago has returned it to Greece, the Greek culture ministry said Saturday.

The capital of the column, made of limestone and measuring nine inches high and 33.5 cm 13 inches wide, was taken from the Leonidaion, a 4th-century BC guesthouse.

In a social media post, the Greek culture ministry praised the "sensitivity and courage" of the woman who returned the artifact.

It is the third artifact returned by the University of Muenster in recent years. The handover took place on Friday.

"Motivated by the recent return of important antiquities from the University of Muenster to their countries of origin, she decided to hand it over to the university, with whose valuable contribution it returned to Greece and Ancient Olympia", the ministry said, hailing the "sensitivity and courage" of the woman.

In 2019, the University of Muenster returned a twin-handled wine cup belonging to a champion from the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896.

Then in 2024, it returned a Roman-era marble male head which came from a cemetery in Thessaloniki.

"This is a particularly moving moment. This act proves that culture and history know no borders but require cooperation, responsibility, and mutual respect," Giorgios Didaskalou, a senior culture ministry official said.

Torben Schreiber, curator of the University of Muenster's archaeological museum, added that: "It is never too late to do the right thing, the moral and the just."

Athens has been trying for years to broker deals for the repatriation of antiquities without resorting to legal action.

Its chief goal remains the return of the Parthenon Marbles, held by the British Museum since the 19th century. Several European governments have been pushing for the sculptures to be returned to Athens since the early 1980s.

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