A Chilean retiree has returned an ancient Greek marble fragment to Greece after learning about the country's ongoing efforts to recover cultural artifacts from around the world. Enrico Tosti-Croce made the decision to return the 1.2-kilogram piece of marble after hearing a radio report about Greece's request for the British Museum to return the famous Parthenon Marbles while driving through Villarrica in southern Chile.

The marble fragment has a unique family history spanning decades. Tosti-Croce's father, Gaetano Tosti-Croce, originally took the trapezoidal piece carved with lotus flowers from the foot of the Parthenon during a naval visit to Athens in the 1930s. Gaetano served as the chief engineer of the Console Generale Liuzzi submarine, which was sunk by British destroyers on June 27, 1940, just 17 days after Italy entered World War II. He spent the remainder of the war as a British prisoner in India.

After the war ended, Gaetano returned to Italy, retired from the navy, and decided to emigrate to Chile in 1949. His family followed him the next year, with Enrico arriving in Valparaíso in 1950 at age two and a half, accompanied by his mother and younger sister, after traveling from Genoa via Buenos Aires. The marble fragment made the journey across the Atlantic with them and served as a decorative piece in their various homes in Viña del Mar, a coastal city just north of Valparaíso.

When Enrico's parents died in 1994, he inherited the marble piece and moved it to his home in Santiago, and later to Villarrica after retiring. "When someone came to my house for the first time, I would show them that stone and say: 'This is from the Parthenon,'" Tosti-Croce explained. "Some believed me, others didn't." He was simply repeating what his father had told him about the artifact's origins.

Upon hearing the radio news about Greece's restitution requests, Tosti-Croce experienced a moment of realization. "When I heard the news, I said: 'Wow, I have a little piece of the Parthenon,'" he told The Art Newspaper. This revelation prompted him to take action, as he felt a moral obligation to return the artifact. "It's my responsibility to return it," he decided.

Tosti-Croce contacted the Greek embassy in Santiago via email to inform them about the marble fragment. Embassy officials requested a photograph and details about the piece's shape and weight, which he gladly provided. During a subsequent trip to Santiago, he personally delivered the marble fragment to the embassy, asking the receiving official if they could provide information about which specific part of the Parthenon it had come from.

Months later, Tosti-Croce received an official letter from the Hellenic Ministry of Culture expressing gratitude for his generous gesture. The letter contained surprising information about the artifact's true origins. Rather than being from the famous Parthenon, the piece had actually been part of the roof-gutter of an even older structure – an archaic temple, probably the Hekatompedon, which was the first monumental temple built on the Acropolis during the first half of the 6th century BC.

"It turned out the piece wasn't from the Parthenon, but from an even older temple," Tosti-Croce noted, expressing amazement at learning the fragment's actual historical significance. The discovery that his family's artifact predated the Parthenon by decades made the return even more meaningful.

The Greek embassy plans to honor Tosti-Croce in a ceremony in Santiago on Tuesday, November 4th, recognizing his voluntary repatriation of the ancient artifact. Greek officials hope that his example will inspire others, particularly major institutions like the British Museum, to follow his lead in returning Greek cultural treasures. The Greek government has been fighting since 1983 for the repatriation of the Parthenon sculptures, which arrived in London in the early 19th century through Lord Elgin, who was the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire at the time.

Reflecting on his decision to return the marble fragment, Tosti-Croce described feeling a profound sense of satisfaction. "When I left the Greek embassy after handing over the piece of marble, I felt a special kind of satisfaction. I don't even know how to describe it... I felt like I had done something good," he said. His voluntary act of repatriation represents a personal contribution to the broader international conversation about returning cultural artifacts to their countries of origin.