Chilean retiree returns Ancient Greek marble fragment his father stole in the 1930s

"Along with the family across the Atlantic came a 1.2kg piece of marble, a trapezoidal fragment carved with lotus flowers, which Gaetano had taken from the foot of the Parthenon when he visited Athens with the navy in the 1930s. The piece remained as an ornament in the family's various homes in Viña del Mar, a coastal city just north of Valparaíso."

"When Enrico Tosti-Croce's parents died in 1994, he inherited the marble piece and took it with him to his home in Santiago-and later to Villarrica, where he moved with his wife and youngest daughter after he retired. 'When someone came to my house for the first time, I would show them that stone and say: 'This is from the Parthenon',' he says. 'Some believed me, others didn't.' He was repeating what he had heard from his father."

Enrico Tosti-Croce lives in Villarrica, southern Chile, and owns a 1.2kg trapezoidal marble fragment carved with lotus flowers removed from the foot of the Parthenon. The fragment was taken to Chile by his father, Gaetano Tosti-Croce, after Gaetano visited Athens with the Italian navy in the 1930s. Gaetano served as chief engineer on the Console Generale Liuzzi, was taken prisoner by the British in India during World War II, later retired and emigrated to Chile. The marble remained an ornament in the family homes in Viña del Mar. Enrico inherited the piece in 1994 and kept it while living in Santiago and later Villarrica.

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