The 53 church artefacts sent to Greece in exchange for Tsar Samuel’s remains are still on the National History Museum’s inventory, a museum official told BTA on Saturday.
Head of the museum’s Exhibition and International Activities Department Petranka Nedelcheva said the objects, previously held at the museum, had been provided under the arrangements for the return of Tsar Samuel’s remains to Bulgaria.
The 53 objects are listed under 48 inventory numbers because some entries cover more than one item, she explained. Two liturgical fans, for example, share a single inventory number.
The objects date from the 18th and 19th centuries and have artistic and religious value, Nedelcheva said. They include crosses, tabernacles and a door associated with one of the monasteries from which the items came, as well as liturgical fans from the cathedral in Serres. No crowns had been sent, she added.
She described their artistic and religious value as very high. “Each of the objects lent to Greece bears a donor’s inscription indicating which monastery it belongs to and which monastery the donor wished to give it to,” Nedelcheva said. The objects are associated with the Panagia Eikosifoinissa and Timios Prodromos monasteries, as well as the cathedral in Serres.
OBJECTS PROVIDED ON LOAN
Explaining the terms of the transfer, Nedelcheva said the objects had neither been donated nor transferred into Greek ownership. They had been provided “on loan” for public display in Greece.
Such loans normally have a fixed term, but no return date had yet been set for these objects, she said. Whether the loan period would be extended in future was also unclear. Nedelcheva reiterated that the objects remained on the museum’s inventory.
Nedelcheva linked their history to events in 1917, when the Bulgarian government ordered troops stationed in the area to seize objects associated with Bulgarians, Bulgarian history and cultural heritage in order to safeguard them.
“We are talking about soldiers; they could hardly have known so precisely what was Bulgarian and what was Greek,” Nedelcheva said, noting that people from different communities and nationalities worshipped at the monasteries and churches.
The objects were brought to Bulgaria, but their presence was kept secret for a long time. No manuscripts were among the items sent to Greece, she said. “Not a single page has been sent out,” Nedelcheva said, quoting National History Museum Director Boni Petrunova. The objects had been exhibited over the years, but none formed part of the museum’s current exhibition.
Nedelcheva dismissed as speculation claims that Bulgaria had handed over its most valuable national treasures under the agreement. “We are talking about just 53 objects,” she said, adding that none had been taken from the current exhibition or formed part of the principal treasures displayed at the museum.
AN END TO SPECULATION OVER SAMUEL’S IDENTITY
“We have not sent Bulgaria’s treasures abroad,” Nedelcheva said, inviting people to visit the museum and see its archaeological treasures. The museum holds 22 treasure hoards discovered in Bulgaria with documented archaeological contexts, including the Panagyurishte and Borovo treasures, she said.
Nedelcheva also discussed the historical significance she attached to the return of Samuel’s remains. Beyond the political disputes surrounding the arrangements, she said, it was important to recognize that the Greek state was handing over the remains of a Bulgarian tsar entirely voluntarily.
The remains had been found during archaeological excavations in present-day Greece and belonged to Greece under all applicable laws, Nedelcheva said. In her view, the handover was itself historically significant because it settled the dispute over Samuel’s national identity. “So I do not know whether these tabernacles (we have the same treasures in one form or another in almost every church in Bulgaria) are as priceless as the fact that we are receiving Tsar Samuel’s bones,” Nedelcheva said.
She acknowledged differing scholarly views on the identification of the remains. What mattered, in her view, was that the Greeks believed the remains were Samuel’s and were handing them over to Bulgaria in the firm belief that they were his bones. This was of enormous historical significance, she said.
“Our southern neighbour has returned our tsar to us, putting an end to speculation about who Samuel was,” Nedelcheva added.
Bulgaria welcomed the remains of Tsar Samuel, who ruled from 997 to 1014, on Saturday. They arrived from Greece aboard a Spartan military transport aircraft under an agreement between the two countries. Greek archaeologist Nikolaos Moutsopoulos discovered the remains in 1969 in the Basilica of St Achillios on Small Prespa Lake.
Samuel was a Bulgarian ruler of the late 10th and early 11th centuries and a member of the Cometopuli dynasty. His reign, from 997 to 1014, was marked by a prolonged struggle to preserve the Bulgarian state against the Byzantine Empire. On July 29, 1014, Byzantine Emperor Basil II captured about 14,000 Bulgarian soldiers at the battle near the village of Klyuch and ordered them blinded. Samuel died on October 6 that year.
Church Artefacts Sent to Greece Remain on Museum’s Inventory, Official Says 2026 THE NEWS FROM BULGARIA – NEWS AGENCY 2009-2025 2026-10-03 16:46:34
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