Greece ratifies deal to recoup 161 ancient treasures from US

Greece has ratified a complex deal for the return, over coming decades, of 161 striking ancient Greek artifacts from a U.S. billionaire's collection after Athens conceded it had no evidence they'd been illegally excavated and exported.

The mostly marble works date from 5300-2200 BC, and the bulk of them are from the Early Bronze Age Cycladic civilization whose elegantly abstract but enigmatic marble figurines inspired artists from Pablo Picasso to Constantin Brancusi. Such pieces are highly prized by collectors and museums, which has spawned a wave of illegal excavations in Greece — and countless forgeries.

Greece's parliament on Thursday approved the agreement with New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, a top Athens museum and a Delaware-based cultural institution to which they are being transferred. The works will return to Greece gradually from 2033-2048, after being displayed at the Met from 2023-2048.

Culture Minister Lina Mendoni described them as “masterpieces ... of unique archaeological and scientific value” that Greece is getting without a messy court battle. Before going on display at the Met, 15 of the works will travel to Athens for a year-long exhibition starting November.

“They won't return tomorrow ... but they will (gradually) return,” Mendoni said during a parliamentary debate Thursday. “This collection was completely unknown to the ministry.”

But opposition lawmakers, and many archaeologists, charged that the agreement would whitewash the global trade in undocumented and potentially illegally excavated antiquities. They argued that the government should have fought a legal battle for their immediate return.

Little is known on the provenance of the 161 works from the collection of Leonard N. Stern, an 84-year-old pet supplies and real estate...