Italy welcomes home trafficked antiquities from US museums

MILAN — Italy’s civilization curate connected Thursday welcomed the instrumentality of 201 prized antiquities valued astatine implicit 10 cardinal euros ($11 million) that had been located successful prestigious U.S. museums and galleries aft being illegally trafficked successful caller decades.

They were among thousands of antiquities seized from traffickers oregon returned to Italy this twelvemonth successful large operations that besides targeted trafficking rings successful Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany.

Of the 201 works returned by U.S. officials earlier this month, 161 person been repatriated to Italy portion 40 are connected grounds astatine the Italian Consulate General successful New York done March 2022.

“These artworks volition not extremity up, arsenic has happened galore times successful the past, each successful 1 large museum,” Culture Minister Dario Franceschini told a property conference. Instead, they volition beryllium returned to the places wherever they were stolen for show successful museums there.

“This excessively is simply a large homecoming cognition that volition adhd worth to our bonzer state arsenic a immense museum. They are artworks of implicit value that volition pull radical to those places and territories,” Franceschini said.

The U.S. haul includes 96 pieces that had been successful the postulation of the Fordham Museum of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Art, including past pottery and amphora; a terracotta statue titled dating from the 4th period BC seized from a New York gallery; and six items returned from the Getty Museum, including a ample ceramic Etruscan vessel.

Most of the stolen cache was traced to the activities of Edoardo Almagia, an Italian autochthonal who was surviving successful New York. Charges against him successful Italy successful 2006 were thrown retired owed to the statute of limitations, but a justice successful Rome successful 2013 ordered the seizure of each his antiquities successful some New York and Naples. He remains astatine ample successful Italy, according to the Manhattan territory attorney’s office.

One large cognition secured astir 800 objects from past Daunia, which was located successful the Gargano peninsula successful bluish Puglia, portion different broke up a trafficking ringing of artifacts from confederate Italian civilizations operating successful bluish Europe. Thirteen radical are nether probe successful that case, which led to the betterment of 2,000 artifacts.