2023-07-14 17:12:40
These pieces have in common to have passed through the hands of Italian art dealers convicted or suspected of trafficking in antiquities.
Will the Louvre have to part with several of its antiquities? Italy is asking the Parisian museum for the return of seven pieces probably looted before their acquisition, the Louvre told AFP on Friday. confirming information from the World.
The daily revealed “an investigation still in progress” to determine with certainty the route of these parts. According to his information, this investigation “could lead in the fall to a historic agreement between France and Italy” allowing the return of these works to the peninsula. Contacted by AFP, the Italian Ministry of Culture did not respond immediately.
A spokeswoman for the Louvre said that the non-public list had been sent in February by the Minister of Culture Gennaro Sangiuliano, who came to prepare the exhibition “Naples in Paris: the Louvre invites the Capodimonte museum”.
“I consider that works which have a dubious provenance are a stain in the collections of the Louvre. We must assume and examine this with rigor and lucidity”, declared the president of the Louvre, Laurence des Cars.
Parts purchased between 1982 and 1995
Entrusted to the Department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities, these pieces were purchased by the Louvre between 1982 and 1995. They have in common that they passed through the hands of Italian art dealers convicted or suspected of trafficking in antiquities: Giacomo Medici, Gianfranco Becchina and Edoardo Almagia.
Among the objects claimed by Italy, we find in particular Greek vases by the “painter of Ixion” (4th century BC) and in the manner of the “painter of Antimenes” (6th century BC).
But according to Le Monde, the most emblematic piece is an amphora from the 5th century BC attributed to the “Berlin painter(the city where the recognizable style of this Greek artist was authenticated) and purchased by the Louvre at auction at Sotheby’s in 1994.
“A stain in the collections of the Louvre”
On one side of this black amphora, we can see a musician playing the zither on a black background. On the other, a character crowned with laurels and making a gesture of invitation by stretching out his arm.
According to Laurence des Cars, only “a few dozen” of archaeological objects in the museum have a dubious provenance. To compare, an investigation by the ICIJ (International Consortium of Investigative Journalists) published last March estimated that the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York possessed some 1,109 objects of illicit provenance.
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