Some even higher.”

Heinrich let out a low whistle. “Damn. No wonder these thugs will kill to protect their business. But if you guys have so much of this stuff lying around, why not sell a bunch of it and get rid of your national debt?”

Thalia gave him an appalled look.

“No?” Heinrich ventured.

“Of course not! No Greek would ever agree to that. Besides, the government got us into so many billions of euros of debt that even selling the Parthenon wouldn’t pay it off.”

“Typical politicians,” Heinrich grunted. “So, are you Greek? You sound American.”

“New York City born and raised,” Thalia said with pride. “But I’ve been back to the old county plenty of times. I’ve run a few excavations there.”

“Who buys this stuff?” Heinrich asked, admiring a statue of Aphrodite. She wasn’t standing on a globe, so he figured she was the regular, down-to-earth, sexy Aphrodite.

Thalia shrugged. “All sorts of people. Nouveau riche millionaires in places like Russia and the United States who see it as an investment, and even some wealthy individuals who claim to have a true interest in ancient art. The lower priced items go to regular collectors like you. I’m sure you’ve spent thousands on your record collection, yes?”

“Sure, but that’s all legal.”

“Some antiquities are too. Well, sort of. They were excavated a century or more ago and have been changing hands ever since. Back then, it was popular for rich young men to take a Grand Tour of Italy and Greece to see the world and complete their education. Antiquities were legally sold in those times and they each came home with a collection. Some of the artifacts ended up in museums, while others are still in circulation. A lot more antiquities were excavated illegally. It’s a dirty secret of the antiquities trade that the dealers don’t want to talk about.”

“I’ve heard there are lots of fakes too.”

“There are. I spotted many fakes in the collector’s fair. We also spotted several items that had been stolen. The Greek government keeps a registry of stolen items. That’s what Professor Christodolou and I were doing at the fair. We had memorized some of the key items and were on the lookout for them. We found a couple. In fact, when Professor Christodolou was killed, he had just spotted an Archaic period statuette that had been taken from a museum near Sparti just six months ago. The dealers who had been selling these things have had their stock confiscated, of course, and Interpol is questioning them. Montaine is handling all that and will tell us if he gets any good leads.”

“I’m thinking those dealers didn’t know the stuff was stolen. Chances are your gang knows how to forge whatever papers they need.”

Thalia made a face and nodded.