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.

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.

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.

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.

A more than 2,000-year-old marble statue of a woman has been found discarded in a rubbish bag near Thessaloniki, Greece. A local resident stumbled upon the 31-inch statue next to a bin in Neoi Epivates and promptly alerted authorities.

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

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.