Legal quarrels over the royal properties
A long-standing dispute between the former royal family and the Greek state over the ownership of movable and immovable property which, prior to the constitutional change of the Metapolitefsi, was considered to be the property of King Constantine was resolved in 2002. The European Court of Human Rights condemned Greece for violating Article 1 of the First Protocol and awarded the former royal family compensation of €13.7 million. The legal basis of the dispute was determined by the interpretation of royal property as private or public. According to the royal family, the property was acquired by their predecessors through legal means (purchases) from their personal estates and was therefore considered the inheritance of the former king. In the eyes of the Greek public, however, the property was a by-product of the institution of the monarchy and served to enable the supreme ruler to exercise his role as monarch. With the demise of the monarchy, the property should automatically pass to the state.
In 1973, Decree No. 225 expropriated the movable and immovable property of the former king and members of the royal family for the benefit of the state. In September 1974, the government of National Salvation, headed by Constantine Karamanlis revoked the junta's decree in anticipation of the referendum that would determine the country's constitution. Although the referendum abolished the monarchy, the government did not proceed with the confiscation of property. Instead, it set up a seven-member commission to administer the property. This committee later handed over its responsibilities to the legal representative of the royal family in Greece, retired admiral Mario Stavridis. Thus, members of the royal family continued to declare their property as inherited and to file inheritance and income tax returns, and the tax administration continued to assess taxes and impose surcharges and fines. In 1984, Constantine took the initiative to approach the Greek government to settle the former royal family's tax debts to the Greek state. An agreement was finally reached in 1992, under the government of Konstantinos Mitsotakis with Law 2086/1992. The agreement - which was never implemented - included the payment by the royal family of 183,000,000 drachmas in cash from the total amount of inheritance tax due, while the rest was to be covered by the concession of 81 hectares (200 acres) to the state, 400 acres (160 ha) to the "World Hippocratic Hospital Foundation and Research Centre" to be built a huge hospital complex, and 15,146 hectares (37,426 acres) to the "Tatoi National Park". In the agreement there was no specific provision for the so-called "summer palace" of Tatoi, for Mon Repo, for Polydendri and for mobile things. All these were considered the King's property.
In 1993, on the occasion of the visit of the royal family to Greece, Andreas Papandreou announced the legislative settlement of the outstanding issues. In fact, on the basis of the consultative document drafted by Evangelos Venizelos for the Municipality of Corfu to strengthen their claim to Mon Repos, when PASOK returned to power under, it abolished the previous law and replaced it with 2215/1994. The Law confiscated the King's property for the benefit of the state without the right to compensation and deprived the members of the royal family of their Greek citizenship. The royal family immediately appealed to the country's civil courts. Although upheld by the Supreme Civil and Criminal Court of Greece, the decision was overturned by the Council of State. The Special Highest Court, to which the case was referred in 1997, agreed with the Council of State. All legal remedies in Greece had been depleted. The royal family therefore turned to the European courts.
I feel the Greek government have acted unjustly and vindictively. They treat me sometimes as if I am their enemy – I am not the enemy. I consider it the greatest insult in this world for a Greek to be told he is not a Greek or for a Greek to be told that he has to apply for his nationality. I was born Greek, I am Greek and I will die Greek, and there are certain things that every human being will not go further with. You cannot push an individual further and this is my limit.
An appeal to the European Commission of Human Rights was lodged by Constantine, Anna-Marie, their five children, Princess Irene and Princess Catherine. His sister, Queen Sophia, did not take part because she had already renounced her rights to the estate. The court allowed the appeal, but only for Constantine, Irene and Catherine. In October 1998, the European Commission admitted the property issue when all 30 judges unanimously ruled that human rights had been violated and referred the matter to the European Court of Human Rights. Constitutional lawyer Nikos Alivizatos, a member of the team of lawyers who represented the Greek State in the trial, pointed out that the trial was considered historic, as it was the most important property case to come before them. The former royal family challenged the expropriation without compensation of 17,000 hectares (42,000 acres) in Tatoi, 93 hectares (230 acres) in Corfu and 13,000 hectares (33,000 acres) in Polydendri, Larissa. The total amount demanded by the former king was 168.7 billion drachmas. The court also encouraged six months of meetings between Constantine and the Greek government to coordinate a settlement, however the Greek government refused. The court also defined the former king's litigation assets as private, ruling that the property that accompanied the institution of the monarchy had already been automatically transferred to the state, meaning that the Greek state could award Constantine monetary compensation, rather than returning his royal properties. The Greek State was therefore obliged to compensate the plaintiffs, setting the appropriate compensation at 1/40th of the amount claimed, i.e. 4.7 billion drachmas (13.7 million euro). The money was collected in March 2003. With the compensation, the former king set up the "Anna Maria Foundation" to allocate the funds back to the Greek people for use in "extraordinary natural disasters" and charitable causes.
The court decision also ruled that Constantine's human rights were not violated by the Greek state's decision not to grant him Greek citizenship and passport unless he adopts a surname. Constantine said of this "the law basically said that I had to go out and acquire a name. The problem is that my family originates from Denmark and the Danish royal family haven't got a surname." Constantine and his family ultimately did not receive their Greek citizenship back. Although originally requesting Spanish citizenships, Anne-Marie eventually requested of her sister, Margrethe II of Denmark, to have Danish diplomatic passports instated in the names of the members of the Greek royal family. She agreed and in their Danish passports, Constantine and Anne-Marie's names were established as "HM King Constantine II" and "HM Queen Anne-Marie". On 20 December 2024, over two decades after the court ruling and almost two years after Constantine's death, his descendants received Greek citizenship upon adopting the surname "De Grèce" (Ντε Γκρες; "of Greece"), which had been used by Prince Michael of Greece and Denmark, a first cousin of Constantine's father.
On 8 October 1990, the commissioner of the Royal Estate, Admiral Stavridis, submitted a request for the transfer of the family's "households goods" abroad. After secret talks with then Prime Minister Constantine Mitsotakis, the government accepted the former king's request and on 22 November, the Greek Minister for the Economy, Ioannis Palaiokrassas, and the Minister for Culture, Tzannis Tzannetakis, issued a joint ministerial decision in order to check, register and mark the objects in the collection which were probably prohibited from leaving the country. In February 1991, when the transfer process began, customs officials, an archaeologist and a representative of the National Gallery carried out the registration of the objects. This work was characterised by haste and sloppiness, and did not meet scientific standards. Nevertheless, the list was submitted to the National Gallery in April 1992, although it has not been used for cross-checking since. On 17 February 1991, nine containers weighing 32 tonnes and containing 1904 boxes were loaded onto a ship leaving Piraeus for the port of Tilbury and the former royal residence in London.
When a dock worker at the port alerted the newspapers to the transfer, it became public knowledge, and a heated debate ensued. The opposition claimed that underworld methods had been used, as Parliament had not been informed and all discussions and negotiations had taken place in secret, while public discourse questioned the legality of the transfer and assurances that it would not affect the public interest.
What further discredited the operation of transferring the heirlooms was when it was revealed, 10 years later, that on 13 February 1991, while the place was under guard, a major break-in and robbery of objects of incalculable value took place. The list of stolen goods included jewellery, valuable religious icons, works of art and objects that were classified as unique works of cultural heritage and could not be legally exported. However, both the Hellenic Police and Konstantinos' entourage concealed the fact and did not take legal action to solve the theft.
In 2007, 850 valuable objects belonging to the royal estate were auctioned by Christie's in London. Constantine denied that he was the vendor - he claimed that they had already been sold in 1991 to third parties who auctioned them but journalists disputed the claim. The Greek government, through then Culture Minister Georgios Voulgarakis, tried to stop the auction, claiming that the items may have been illegally exported from Greece, but the attempt failed.
