Kroisos Kouros

The sculpture is dated to the Late Archaic Period c. 540–515 BC and stands 1.95 metres high.

An investigation was launched and reports showed that some years before it had been illegally unearthed from a burial mound in Anavissos in Attica.

It was sawn in various parts and sent to Paris for sale before it was returned to the National Archaeological Museum of Athens.

The inscription on the base of the statue reads: "Stop and show pity beside the marker of Kroisos, dead, whom, when he was in the front ranks, raging Ares destroyed".

[4] The Kroisos Kouros is central to two ongoing archeological debates: first, whether kouroi represent specific young men or are generic representations of idealised archetypes, which may not actually resemble a specific individual commemorated, and thus represent a symbolic embodyiment of the ideal male warriors promachoi (πρόμᾰχοι) who fought in the front line of battles; and second, the authenticity of the Getty kouros, which bears a falsified provenance and displays a suspicious similarity to the Kroisos kouros.