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(5.5-inch) tall work from the 8th century B.C. Greek officials wrote to the auction house asking for the lot to be withdrawn and repatriated, arguing that it was of Greek origin and had never been declared or granted an export license.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.