In Greece, an abbot is arrested for trafficking religious artifacts • Affiliated with the monastery of Kalavryta, in the Peloponnese, the clergyman was caught as he attempted to sell 14 Byzantine icons and two 18th-century Gospels for the sum of €200,000.

>For several months, Greek police from the General Directorate of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage conducted an undercover operation on the slopes of Mount Chelmos, in the northern Peloponnese.

>The officers learned from an anonymous source that an antiquities trafficking operation was underway in the region. They posed as intermediaries for a buyer and in cafés or near deserted roads met several individuals suspected of being involved in such trafficking, including a man known as “Jackson,” who had already been arrested for the illegal trade of antiquities. In October 2008, he was found in possession of an 80-centimeter fragment of an ancient column, an amphora, 31 photographic negatives depicting terracotta figurines, ancient vases or coins, as well as a truck apparently intended for transporting these objects abroad, according to the newspaper *I Kathimerini*.

>When they learned that a clergyman was offering stolen religious objects, the police − though initially skeptical − decided to follow up on the lead.

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