The discovery of a 2000-year-old headless statue from the Hellenistic period has prompted Greek police to investigate.

Authorities say the statue dates back to the Hellenistic period and are investigating how it ended up among garbage. It was worse for wear — no head and no arms.

On the evening of Jan. 18, a 32-year-old Greek man went to the police with an unusual object that he said he had found in a plastic bag among trash bins near the northern city of Thessaloniki. It was a headless, armless statue depicting a female form in a flowing, draped garment.

She was lying in a garbage bag, and nothing indicated she was an invaluable relic. A marble statue of a woman, which may date back to the Hellenistic era, was discovered near Thessaloniki. The find has been sent for archaeological research.

Ancient statues have also been found in trash before in other parts of Europe. In 2023, a Roman-era statuette of Venus was discovered in a trash dump in Rennes, France. That same year, ancient bronze statues were found in a garbage dump in Tuscany, Italy.

A marble statue of a woman, believed to be more than 2,000 years old, was found abandoned in a garbage bag near the Greek city of Thessaloniki, police said Wednesday.

Police in Greece are investigating the discovery of a 2,000-year-old statue in a black bag near some trash cans in a suburban municipality in the Thessaloniki region on Saturday.