Greece received 48 religious treasures from Bulgaria on Saturday, October 3, 109 years after they were taken to Sofia during World War I, as the two countries formalized a reciprocal handover that also covers human remains attributed to the medieval Bulgarian ruler Tsar Samuil.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev attended the ceremony at Thessaloniki’s Museum of Byzantine Culture. Culture Ministers Lina Mendoni and Evtim Miloshev signed the handover protocol, implementing the cultural agreement announced on September 29.
Mitsotakis presented the return as a breakthrough after decades of negotiations and said cooperation should continue to bring back other objects. Former Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, however, criticized the agreement, arguing that Greece had secured only a small portion of the religious treasures removed during the war.
Religious treasures return after 109 years
The returned objects include icons, crosses, vestments, reliquaries and a bishop’s throne. They originate from the monasteries of Panagia Eikosifoinissa and Timios Prodromos in Serres, and the Metropolis of Serres and Nigrita, an Orthodox ecclesiastical jurisdiction in northern Greece.
Transported to Sofia in 1917, the treasures had been displayed or stored at Bulgaria’s National Museum of History. They will remain on exhibition at the Museum of Byzantine Culture through November 5, 2026, before being delivered to their respective religious institutions according to their provenance.
The agreement’s wording remains significant. The Greek government’s announcement describes a reciprocal “deposit” of historically important objects but it does not explicitly announce a transfer of ownership.
At the ceremony, Mitsotakis said the negotiations had roots in discussions between Greek Prime Minister Konstantinos Karamanlis and Bulgarian leader Todor Zhivkov in the 1970s. He credited political determination and cooperation between successive governments with making the handover possible.
Samuil’s remains and the Prespa connection
Greece’s part of the arrangement concerns remains attributed to Samuil, who ruled Bulgaria from 997 to 1014, together with other human remains recovered from four sarcophagi inside the Basilica of Agios Achilleios.
Greek archaeologist Nikolaos Moutsopoulos recovered the remains in the Prespa region. They had been kept in recent years at Thessaloniki’s Museum of Byzantine Culture. The identification as Samuil is retained here as an attribution, rather than an independently established finding.
Radev welcomed the agreement as an achievement in relations between the neighboring countries. He said their cooperation had helped them move beyond past confrontation and strengthen mutual respect and friendship.
Mitsotakis links return to Parthenon campaign
In his remarks at the Thessaloniki ceremony, Mitsotakis argued that monuments and historical treasures should not be treated as spoils of war. He connected that principle with Greece’s campaign to reunite the Parthenon sculptures in Athens.
He reiterated that Greece would not accept arrangements implying recognition of foreign ownership or requiring it to borrow its own treasures. That position remains central to the dispute over the sculptures’ return from the British Museum.
Samaras challenges the terms
Greece’s former Prime Minister and former leader of the governing New Democracy party, Antonis Samaras, argued on Saturday that Greece had fulfilled a longstanding Bulgarian national aspiration while receiving only 48 of what he described as thousands of stolen religious treasures.
In a statement, he said he had demanded the return of all such objects while serving as prime minister.
Samaras was removed a few years ago from ND’s parliamentary caucus and is poised to establish a rival right-wing party to challenge Mitsotakis’ dominance in Greece’s center-right and right-wing voters.
The government, responding to his criticism, pointed to the Church of Greece’s Holy Synod, which welcomed the return and expressed hope that further agreements would follow.
The present arrangement leaves additional claims unresolved and therefore both governments have agreed to continue negotiations over historical objects of mutual interest excluded from this handover.
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