A fragment of a capstone from the Leonidaion of Ancient Olympia, which had been illegally removed during the 1960s, was repatriated from Münster, Germany, at the Conference Centro of Ancient Olympia.
According to a statement by the Ministry of Culture, it is a fragment of an Ionic capstone, made of limestone, which has plaster in places. Its maximum surviving dimensions are 24 cm (height) by 33.5 cm (width), and it shows stylistic similarities with Ionic capitals from the area of Ancient Olympia.
The Leonidaion, which bears the name of its donor, Leonides from Naxos, is located outside the Althea, in the southwestern part of the sanctuary of Olympia.
According to the same statement, the repatriation of the capstone was carried out by a German woman who had owned it since the 1960s, after it was recovered from the Leonidaion site during a visit.
Motivated by the recent returns of significant antiquities from the University of Münster to their countries of origin, she decided to hand it over to the University, which then returned it to Greece.