KAS votes to remove antiquities from Thessaloniki metro station

After a lengthy meeting that went on until Thursday morning, the Culture Ministry's Central Archaeological Council (KAS) decided to remove the antiquities unearthed during excavation work for the Thessaloniki metro.

The antiquities were discovered at the under-construction Venizelou metro station and debate over how to proceed has raised considerable controversy among archaeologists, local authorities and Attiko Metro, the company managing the project.

The project is already many years behind schedule, due to the discoveries. The construction of the Thessaloniki metro was commissioned in 2003 and was initially expected to be completed by 2012.

Attiko Metro had proposed transferring temporarily the findings to a different part of the city for maintenance and eventually returning 92 percent of the items at the original site.

The company's CEO, Nikos...