German farmer awarded £687,000 for part of ancient Roman statue

A German court has ruled that authorities must pay a farmer 773,000 euro (£687,000) for a bronze horse’s head dating back to Roman times found on his land in 2009.

The head, part of a statue of the Roman emperor Augustus, was found by archaeologists in Lahnau in western Germany.

The state of Hesse initially paid the farmer 48,000 euro (£36,000).

The Limburg regional court said that according to state law at the time the farmer was eligible to half the value of the head, which an expert estimated at around 1.6 million euro (£1.21 million). He would also be entitled to interest.