Gaza fisherman hooks statue of ancient Greek god Apollo!

Jwdat Abu Ghrb initially thought it was a corpse, when he spotted a dark shape in the waters off Gaza, where he was fishing. It was a life-size bronze statue, believed to be a 2,500-year-old depiction of the ancient Greek god Apollo. A green spot had formed on the leg of the statue, which is exposed to the air. 




Ghrb described the half-ton object as "treasure pulled out of the sea." 

 Petrified, he narrated the incident: "I put on my goggles, dove underneath and still couldn't tell what it was. I resurfaced and got some help from other people and family members and came back, and after full four hours of trying we managed to get it out of the water and I was shocked by what I found." 

"I thought it was made of gold; I was going to be rich," Ghrb said. "So I took it home to hide it." 

Other people got involved, as a local armed brigade took control of the statue, while another person listed it for sale on the online auction site eBay, with a starting price of about $500,000, according to authorities. 

The posting raised suspicions among officials in the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and the Interior Ministry in Gaza, which is governed by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas. 

The Ministry opened an investigation into what they suspected was an illegal attempt to sell the work of art. Authorities there asked that the statue, as a historical artifact found in Gaza, be handed over but they have hidden it from public view.

A gold store in Gaza however, a man who displayed video of the statue told said that he has custody of it and that it is in safe hands. Government officials promise that the statue will not be sold and that they will start restoration and display it after an investigation into its discovery is completed. 


Authority are working on a plan for the statue to be displayed in world-class museums around the world. Museum authorities in Geneva, Switzerland, have offered to help repair and preserve the statue, and plan for its eventual display in Gaza.