Ancient Vase Returns to Greece

ATHENS—An ancient funerary vase has been repatriated to Greece after being illegally exported by a Swiss art dealer, Agence France-Presse reports. Known as a lecythus, the more than three-foot-high decorative vase dating from the fourth century B.C. features a banquet scene with women greeting one another.

A Swiss antiquarian was forced to return the vase after he tried to sell it at auction in Maastricht in 2007. It had been identified from photographs taken from suspected antiquities smugglers in a previous raid.

Greece, which has seen its rich holdings of antiquities looted over the past 200 years, has recently increased efforts to take back items illegally exported abroad, including some in important museums and private collections. Greece and Switzerland signed an agreement last May binding both countries to help each other locate and return illegally exported artifacts.