The discovery of a 2000-year-old headless statue from the Hellenistic period has prompted Greek police to investigate.

On the evening of Jan. 18, a 32-year-old Greek man went to the police with an unusual object that he said he had found in a plastic bag among trash bins near the northern city of Thessaloniki. It was a headless, armless statue depicting a female form in a flowing, draped garment.

An ancient statue dating to the Hellenistic era was found in a black bag next to garbage bins in Greece's northern city of Thessaloniki.

Police in Greece say a marble statue of a woman believed to be more than 2,000 years old has been found abandoned in a garbage bag and handed to archaeologists.

A man found the headless statue of a woman just outside Greece's second biggest city before handing it over to local authorities. | ITV National News

A headless marble statue, believed to be over 2,000 years old, was found abandoned in a garbage bag near Thessaloniki, Greece. Dating to the Hellenist

Police in Greece said Wednesday they were investigating how an ancient Greek statue came to be dumped in a black plastic bag near garbage cans in the northern city of Thessaloniki. The organized crime unit said it was investigating "after a 32-year-old man went to the police to drop off a statue he had apparently found inside a black bag near dustbins.

She was lying in a garbage bag, and nothing indicated she was an invaluable relic. A marble statue of a woman, which may date back to the Hellenistic era, was discovered near Thessaloniki. The find has been sent for archaeological research.