2023-05-31 16:34:43
New coup scored by the Carabinieri of the Cultural Heritage Protection Unit. In fact, joint action between the Ministry of Culture and the soldiers of the Arma has allowed the return to Rome of 750 archaeological finds with an estimated value of 12 million euros, the result of clandestine excavations on Italian territory and merged into an English company in liquidation. Assets that were repatriated on 19 May from London and presented today in Rome, at the National Museum of Castel Sant’Angelo, in the presence of the Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano.
“It is an important recovery from a quantitative point of view but also from a qualitative point of view because we are dealing with truly significant works on a historical level”, underlined Minister Sangiuliano who thanked the Carabinieri of the Heritage Protection Unit and the officials of the ministry “above all for the civil passion they put into their work. If there was no love for culture they would hardly be able to obtain these results. We must stamp out – the owner of via del Collegio Romano pointed out – the international illegality of trafficking in works of art art to which we must not give any leeway. While instead we must promote a positive and legal circuit of circulation of works through major exhibitions. At the moment there are major Italian exhibitions abroad, for example the one dedicated to Guido Reni at the Prado in Spain Conversely, there is the Spaniards’ exhibition in Naples at Capodimonte where ‘La Madonna del Pesce’ by Raphael is exhibited, which is a very important work from the Prado. We must therefore promote a system of international exchange of works of art”. The number one of the MIC also exhorted the officials and directors of the ministry to ensure that the recovered assets do not end up “in the deposits. The works of art must immediately become usable either by giving them to already tested museums or by concerting ad hoc initiatives”.
Speaking of an “extraordinary result” was Brigadier General Vincenzo Molinese, commander of the TPC unit of the Carabinieri. Investigations into works of art, he argued, “have the great advantage that when they are concluded, it is possible to close the circle, that is, to regain what has been looted. They are complex investigations, sometimes very long, which seem to never end It takes tenacity, passion and a lot of skill. Soon many finds will return, the investigations into art never end and the carabinieri of art never get tired”.
The investigations were carried out by the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, coordinated by the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of Rome, to counter the international trafficking of cultural assets, which also resulted in an out-of-court procedure and a civil case, conducted in close collaboration with the Ministry of Culture through the State Attorney General.
The finds had flowed into Symes Ltd, attributable to Robin Symes, an important trafficker of cultural goods. The company, which had always opposed the repeated recovery attempts by the Italian Judicial Authority, subject to bankruptcy proceedings in the United Kingdom, was also sued in Italy, through the Attorney General of the State, for the return of the goods or civil compensation for damages. The delivery was possible thanks to the complex negotiations followed by the Ministry of Culture (Office III of the General Secretariat, Legislative Office and General Directorate of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape), in synergy and close collaboration with the Carabinieri dell’Arte who, with the effective collaboration of the Italian Embassy in London, they were escorted to Italy. The restitution agreement was signed on 11 May.
The set of finds, which can be dated overall between the eighth century BC and the medieval era, offers a cross-section of the many productions of ancient Italy and the islands. Among the most valuable pieces on display in Castel Sant’Angelo are a bronze tripod table from an aristocratic Etruscan orientalizing context, two parade horse headboards from the Appulo-Lucan area, two funerary paintings from the southern area. For the Roman era, some marble virile heads from the Imperial age stand out, various portions of statues and bronze groups, or, again, the wall painting with the depiction of a small temple in all probability torn from a Vesuvian residence.
The reacquired materials include clay vases, both of local production and of Attic and Corinthian manufacture, in bronze and glass paste, elements of clothing and jewels in gold, silver, bronze, bone and amber, including 26 necklaces recomposed in the perspective of the placing on the market, weapons, tools and furnishings, elements of equine harness, votive and architectural coroplastics, sarcophagi, one of which in lead with relief decoration, and funerary urns, votive and ritual objects, elements of statuary in bronze, marble and in limestone, architectural elements and furnishings in bronze and marble, mosaic and painted decorations.
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