An ancient bronze griffin head, stolen nearly a century ago, has been returned to the Archaeological Museum of Olympia.

A big, round, 4,000-year-old stone building discovered on a Cretan hilltop is puzzling archaeologists and threatening to disrupt a major airport project on the Greek tourist island.

Greece has welcomed the return of ancient artifacts from the Acropolis, furthering a campaign to press the British Museum to hand back a collection of sculptures taken from the ancient site in Athens more than 200 years ago.

For decades, an important part of Greece’s cultural heritage sparkled only for the very few in a U.S. billionaire’s private collection, until a groundbreaking deal for its gradual return to Athens.

The ministry said the ruling published Tuesday rejected a bid by Sotheby's to proceed with the auction of the 14-centimeter- (5.5-inch) tall work from the 8th century B.C. Greek officials wrote to the auction house asking for the lot to be withdrawn and repatriated, arguing that it was of Greek origin and had never been declared or granted an export license. The country has a profusion of ancient sites spanning several thousand years of civilization, but lacks the means to adequately police them all from looters. The ministry said that while Sotheby's did withdraw the statuette from auction, the house took legal action against Greece, seeking recognition that Greece had no rights to the work. It said Sotheby's won a first court case but Greece appealed, resulting in the decision published Tuesday.

Greece's Culture Ministry said Wednesday the ancient vase has been returned to Athens by the University of Muenster in Germany where it had ended up. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)An ancient Greek cup awarded as a prize to the marathon winner in the first modern Olympics of 1896 has been returned to Athens from a German university. Greeces Culture Ministry says the 6th century B.C. A ministry statement says it was proved beyond any doubt that the two-handled cup painted with ancient runners was the one given to Spiros Louis, the Greek marathon victor in 1896. Following correspondence with Greek officials, the university agreed to return the cup, which was part of a private German collection it had bought in 1986.