'Priceless' bronze statue of Greek god Apollo found in Gaza Strip.
Lost for centuries, a rare bronze statue of the Greek god Apollo has mysteriously resurfaced in the Gaza Strip, only to be seized by police and vanish almost immediately from view.
Word of the remarkable find has caught the imagination of the world of archaeology, but the police cannot say when the life-sized bronze might re-emerge or where it might be put on display.
A local fisherman says he scooped the 500kg (1,100lb) god from the seabed last August, and carried it home on a donkey cart, unaware of the significance of his catch.
Others soon guessed at its importance, and the statue briefly appeared on eBay with a $500,000 (£300,000) price tag - well below its true value. Police from the Islamist group Hamas, which rules the isolated Palestinian territory, swiftly seized it and say they are investigating the affair.
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/feb/10/priceless-bronze-statue-apollo-gaza-strip
Fisherman nets centuries-old statue of Greek god Apollo in Gaza Strip.
To their great frustration, archaeologists have not been able to get their hands on the Apollo, and instead must pore over a few blurred photographs of the intact deity, who is laid out incongruously on a blanket emblazoned with Smurfs.
From what they can tell it was cast sometime between the 5th and the 1st century BC, making it at least 2,000 years old.
"It's unique. In some ways I would say it is priceless. It's like people asking what is the (value) of the painting La Gioconda (the Mona Lisa) in the Louvre museum," said Jean-Michel de Tarragon, a historian with the French Biblical and Archaeological School of Jerusalem.
The apparently pristine condition of the god suggested it was uncovered on land and not in the sea, he said, speculating that the true location of where it was unearthed was not revealed to avoid arguments over ownership.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/fisherman-nets-centuriesold-statue-of-greek-god-apollo-in-gaza-strip-9120117.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
Hope it's the real deal. 
It's a shame that they cut off those two fingers, but given the conditions they live under, it's understandable they'd wonder about its value. I went looking for better pics of it and one shows the statue standing up, simply beautiful. Here are a couple of others I found:
http://world.greekreporter.com/2014/02/10/greek-god-statue-recovered-in-gaza-strip/
Imagine that fisherman spotting it on the seabed, thinking that it was a real man. In a video that I watched, he said it was no problem getting it up as long as it was in the water, but as soon as they had it on the beach, five men could hardly carry it, it's so heavy.
