Police have saved the priceless ruins of an ancient temple from being smashed up to make room for a southern Italian holiday village.
The developers found the ruins while they were digging foundations for villas at a site near the Calabrian town of Torre Melissa.
But rather than alerting the authorities, they used the most attractive pieces to decorate a holiday camp they own nearby and started to dump the rest.
Fortunately, the police discovered what was going on and halted work before too much damage was done.
All the pieces the developers threw away have been recovered.
The authorities have seized possession of the site of the temple, which experts say was built between the fourth and third century BC, when southern Italy was in the hands of Greek colonies.
The culture ministry said the whole area will be excavated.
"It is a real treasure trove that has come to light thanks to the work of the Carabinieri culture police," said Culture Minister and Deputy Premier Francesco Rutelli Tuesday at the press conference called to announce the find.
"The operation has enabled us to save an archaeological site that could have huge surprises in store".
Calabrian Archaeology Superintendent Pietro Guzzo said it was the first ancient public building of this type to have been found in this part of the region, which is near the city of Crotone.
He said some of the architectural features suggested it may have been built by the Brezzi, settlers who lived in the area in the fourth and third centuries BC.
"We have remains of Brezzi fortified city walls and houses, but no public buildings like this, which makes the find particularly interesting," Guzzo said
The police said prosecutors are considering pressing charges against two people involved in the construction of the holiday village for failing to report the find.
Torre Melissa Mayor Giuseppe Ponessi said their brutal treatment of the site was born of ignorance.
He claimed they did not realize they were handling antiquities.
Experts say developers pose a major threat to the remains of ancient Greek civilization in southern Italy.
Last month a Sicilian journalist presented evidence which he claimed showed that Italy's world-famous Valley of the Temples once contained another temple.
The journalist, Angelo Palillo, believes the ruins of a sixth temple were "quietly swept under the carpet amid a wild postwar building boom" that has left ugly apartment blocks encroaching on the UNESCO World Heritage site.
The five temples at Agrigento are one of the glories of Magna Graecia, that swathe of southern Italy which was once dotted with wealthy and culturally lavish Greek cities.
The Ancient Greeks started establishing colonies on the shores of southern Italy at the end of the 8th century BC, eventually founding a string of settlements ranging from Puglia, all the way across to Campania, including a number of spots in Sicily.
They were eventually overrun by the Romans in the third century BC.
