Exposition Universelle

The charming terracotta statuettes known collectivly as Tanagra figurines were first discovered in large numbers in the 1870s during illicit excavations of tombs in the area of the ancient city of Tanagra in Boeotia, a small town north of Athens and not too far from Thebes. The third Paris World's Fair, called an Exposition Universelle in French was held in 1878, at the peak of what has been called "Tanagra mania". The Tanagra Figures, as they came to be known, were brought to Paris and exhibtied at the Exposition Universelle, where they fascinated the French public, both due to their richly colored surfaces and also because they were viewed as a possible link to the lost works of Praxiteles. At that time, the site Tanagra of Boeotia was not be fully excavated, the exhibition of these figurines stimulated both the forgeries in art market and new excavation. From my speculation by "Praxiteles", most Tanagra figures at tha time were marble version. The new excavation discovered more terracotta figurines after 1880. 

Sources:

http://www.sothebys.com/de/auctions/ecatalogue/lot.pdf.L11230.html/f/89/L11230-89.pdf, Sothepy's 19th and 20th Century European Sculpture, accessed April 21, 2014

Violaine Jeamment (ed.), Tanagra: Figurines for Life and Eternity. The Musée du Louvre's Collection of Greek Figurines. Valencis: Fundación Bancaja, 2010. Pp. 300. Reviewd by Sheila Dillon, Duke University.