A man in northwestern Greece has been arrested after artefacts going back hundreds and even thousands of years were found adorning his restaurant.

Police say they confiscated about 90 mostly fragmentary pots and jars that archaeologists identified as ancient Greek and late mediaeval.

The artefacts, which were on display in the restaurant, in the seaside town of Parga, appeared to have been fished out of the sea, probably from old shipwrecks.

The 32-year-old owner was arrested Monday under Greece's cultural heritage laws.

Police who announced the arrest Tuesday said the man was not suspected of trying to sell the artefacts. They said he claimed to have inherited the pottery from his grandfather who found the artefacts in the sea.

All antiquities found in Greece are by law state property.