2023-08-12 21:05:18
© Reuters.
ROME (Reuters) – Italy said it had repatriated 266 ancient artifacts worth tens of millions of euros from the United States, where they were taken and sold in the late 1990s by an international network of artifact smugglers.
The pieces, the oldest of which date back to the 9th century BC, include works belonging to the periods of Etruscan civilization, Magna Graecia and Imperial Rome.
A specialized unit of Italy’s Carabinieri police on Friday reported that the return of the artifacts was due to cooperation between Italian and US judicial authorities.
Images provided by the Italian Ministry of Culture show the artifacts include several painted pots, the head of a statue and some coins, which were displayed at a restitution ceremony earlier this week in New York.
The statement said 145 pieces were recovered as part of bankruptcy proceedings against an antiques dealer.
The Italian statement also reported that another 65 artifacts came from the Menil Collection museum, in the US city of Houston.
However, a museum spokesman said the artifacts were given as a gift, but referred the donor to the Italian culture minister, who alerted the museum that Italy was laying claim to the objects.
“The Menil Collection refused these works from the collector and they were never part of the museum’s collection,” the spokesman said.
(Text by Angelo Amante and Keith Weir)
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