When Helena inherits her grandparents’ apartment in Athens, she is overwhelmed with memories of the summers she spent there as a child, when Greece was under a brutal military dictatorship. Her remote, cruel grandfather was one of the regime’s generals and as she sifts through the dusty rooms, Helena discovers an array of valuable objects and antiquities. How did her grandfather amass such a trove? What human price was paid for them?
Helena’s desire to find answers about her heritage dovetails with a growing curiosity for archaeology, ignited by a summer spent with volunteers on a dig on an Aegean island. Their finds fuel her determination to protect the precious fragments recovered from the baked earth – and to understand the origins of her grandfather’s collection.
Helena’s attempt to make amends for some of her grandfather’s actions sees her wrestle with the meaning of ‘home’, both in relation to looted objects of antiquity … and herself.
For anyone interested in further reading on the background and themes of
The Figurine
Victoria suggests the following:
- A Piece of Truth – Lady Fleming on the Colonels of Greece – Amalia Fleming
- Inside the Colonels’ Greece – Anonymous
- After the War was Over – Mark Mazower editor
- The House with the Scorpions – Theodorakis and Holst -Warhaft
- The Cycladic Spirit – Colin Renfrew
- Picasso and Antiquity – Line and Clay – Divine Dialogues – Museum of Cycladic Art
- Kallos – The Ultimate Beauty – Ed Nikolaos Stampolidis – Ioannis Pappas
- Byzantium – RA publications
- The Keros Hoard – Peggy Sotirakopolou
- Trafficking Culture: New Directions in Researching the Global Market in Illicit Antiquities – Simon MacKenzie, Neil Brodie, Donna Yates with Christos Tsirogiannis
- Chasing Aphrodite – The Hunt for Looted Looted Antiquities at the World’s Richest Museum – Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino
- The Plundered Past – Karl Meyer
- Pots and Robbers – Dora Jane Hamblin
- The Cyclades or Life Among the Insular Greeks – J. Theodore Bent
- The Medici Conspiracy – Peter Watson
- Loot! The battle over the stolen treasures of the ancient world – Sharon Waxman
- Loot! The Heritage of Plunder – Russell Chamberlin
- Who Owns History? – Geoffrey Robertson
- Lord Elgin and the Marbles – William St Clair
- The Parthenon Marbles – Christopher Hitchens
