Treasure hunt strikes gold at estate of former Greek royal family

Archaeologists searching the former royal estate outside Athens have discovered a treasure trove of art and antiquities, the fate of which had been unknown since ex-king Constantine fled Greece four decades ago.
More than 200 ancient items and 300 paintings were found inside sealed containers in a stable and in the basement of the main residence at Tatoi, 25 kilometres (15 miles) north-west of the Greek capital, culture ministry officials said during a media tour of the site on Tuesday.
"It's a real treasure hunt, we are in the process of removing these marvellous items from boxes stacked in disorderly heaps," restoration supervisor Nikos Minos told AFP.
A team of 21 archaeologists and restorers started work at the crumbling 19th century estate three months ago as part of a bid to catalogue its contents before restoration work starts to find a new role for the site.
The collection includes the bronze helmet of an ancient Greek soldier, glasswork including a perfume vial from Roman times, idols and clay vessels -- among them a 2,700-year-old painted jug bearing the form of a horseman, found intact to the amazement of archaeologists.
The paintings are mainly 19th-century Greek masters but a number belong to the 18th century French and Venetian schools. The search also yielded more than 100 religious icons and vessels, most of them not known to be in the royal collection catalogued by the late Queen Frederika, mother of Constantine and Sofia, the present-day queen of Spain.
Originally purchased in 1872 by King George I of Greece, a scion of Denmark's ruling house of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Gluecksburg, Tatoi fell on hard times when its last owners abandoned it in 1967 shortly after a group of army putschists took control of government.
The estate was seized by the junta in 1973 along with other properties, sparking a legal grudge that was only resolved in 2002 when the European Court of Human Rights ordered the Greek state to pay 13.2 million euros (17.6 million dollars) to the former royal family.
Today, the rustic 4,700-hectare (11,610-acre) estate lies largely abandoned, its 37 romantic-style buildings in various degrees of disrepair and some barely standing.