£2000 BY A TRICK

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 48, Issue 2886, 29 March 1939, Page 3

£2000 BY A TRICK

GULLIBLE AMERICAN

SOLD THE LOST ARMS OF VENUS

GREEK “ART DEALER” CAUGHT

An American traveller from Athens was detained and questioned by the Greek customs authorities at the border and his luggage was thoroughly searched, because he had behaved rather suspiciously. Very carefully hidden underneath some clothing was found a woman’s arm —in stone!

After a long cross-examination the man revealed that he had paid the huge sum of £2OOO. for one of the missing arms of the famous work of art, the Venus de Milo. It had been lately dug up near Athens and the excavator had sold it to him privately, which accounted .for his attempting to smuggle it out of the country, for the Greek authorities would never permit it to be taken out once they learned of the discovery.

The customs officers listened very patiently to his story and came to the conclusion that the serious American who stood before them was trying to pull their legs, but their smiles changed to consternation when he showed them the actual receipt for the money, made out by a Greek, M. Georgopulos, in his own handwriting. After acquainting the traveller of the fact that he had been deliberally swindled, the authorities allowed the disillusioned man to proceed on his way, for a stone arm does not appear on the list of articles on which duty has to be paid.

Determined to follow up this very original trick, the police visited M. Georgopulos and, after making a thorough investigation of the contents of his house, arrested him. They found no fewer than nine stone arms similar to the one in the American’s luggage. This discovery sealed the Greek’s fate, for up to then the police themselves were not really sure that the arm the American carried was not the missing arm of the famous statue.

The bogus "art dealer” confessed that he had sold three similar stone arms besides the one to the American and had received very high prices for them. According to his ideas, the Venus de Milo must have looked like one of those many-armed Eastern goddesses! They had all been sold to unsuspected travellers who had obviously smuggled their bogus “art treasures” out of the country with greater success than the American. M. Georgopulos will not prey on wealthy visitors for a long time, for he received a lengthy sentence for swindling. It is perhaps best to add here a short history of the Venus de Milo. This beautiful work of art was found during excavations on the Greek island of Milo in 1820 on the site of ancient Melos. When the purchase negotiations of the French consul on behalf of his government failed, the treasure was carried off secretly to Paris and has been in the Louvre ever since. The arms of the statue, however, were lost in transit and have never been recovered, and no one has ever been able to give any satisfactory explanation of theii disappearance.