The skyphos and hologram is their new position in the museum © Ephorate of Antiquities of Ilia

A display of prizes presented to the first Olympic marathon champion have finally been put on public display at the Museum of the History of the Olympic Games in Antiquity in Ancient Olympia.

The exhibit includes a newly-installed hologram of a silver cup which was one of the prizes presented to Spiridon Louis, the Olympic champion in 1896, along with an ancient skyphos - a two-handed drinking cup.

The hologram was installed with the backing of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) which owns the original.

It was received by Erofili-Iris Kolia, director of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Ilia - the body which administers the Olympic museum.

Greek Culture Minister Lina Mendoni described the donation as "a kind concession, which will function as a bridge which connects the Olympic Games of Antiquity with the contemporary era."

The hologram will be on permanent display in Olympia. 

A Greek Culture Ministry statement said: "The Stavros Niarchos Foundation, willingly responding to the request of the Ministry of Culture and Sports, indefinitely grants the use of the hologram of the cup to the Museum of the History of the Olympic Games in Antiquity.”

The cup was the work of Michel Breal, a French intellectual who had suggested the establishment of a "marathon" race when the revival of the Olympic Games was agreed in Paris in 1894. He wrote that the winner "would be considered a bearer of classical Greek tradition."

The coronavirus crisis meant a flame-lighting ceremony for Tokyo 2020 in Olympia had to be closed to the public earlier this year ©Getty Images
The coronavirus crisis meant a flame-lighting ceremony for Tokyo 2020 in Olympia had to be closed to the public earlier this year ©Getty Images

The cup was kept by the Louis family for many years, but, in 2012, a grandson auctioned the trophy which was acquired by the SNF.

At $861,129 (£629,000/,€764,000), it was the single most expensive piece of Olympic memorabilia.

The ancient skyphos, which depicts two runners watched by judges, had been part of a collection assembled by Werner Peek, a pre-war German archaeologist, and was returned to Greece by the University of Münster last November. 

It will remain on permanent exhibition in Olympia.

Both originals were intended to be part of a public exhibition timed to coincide with the flame-lighting ceremony for Tokyo 2020.

As all museums and archaeological sites were closed as part of precautions against the spread of coronavirus, it was not possible for the cup to be viewed by visitors to Olympia and even the flame-lighting ceremony itself was conducted without spectators.