ABSTRACT
The most egregious example of meddling by foreign archaeologists in the internal affairs of Greece is that afforded by Walther Wrede, the director in the late 1930s and during the occupation of the German Archaeological Institute in Athens. When Greece entered the war in autumn of 1940 following an attempted Italian invasion, a number of British archaeologists and Classical scholars, with their knowledge and experience of matters Greek, thought that their hour had come. The German Archaeological Institute was likewise a centre of political intrigue as agents of the Entente and Central Powers sought to win over Greece to their cause. The Treaty of Sevres was greeted with great enthusiasm in Greece where it was hailed as establishing the Greece of two continents and the five seas. The decision to donate the Milne collection to the British Museum should be seen in the context of a number of initiatives to strengthen British cultural and educational ties with Venizelist Greece.
