At the forthcoming auction no. 260 of Gorny & Mosch in Munich, scheduled to take place on December 18, 2018, are going to be auctioned six antiquities that have been already identified by Dr. Christos Tsirogiannis as deriving from G. Becchina, when these antiquities were on sale at Christie’s (twice, in London, April 15, 2015 and London, October 1st, 2015) and Gorny & Mosch (December 2016) auctions.The objects concerned are lots nos. 1, 4, 9, 22, 30, and 40. The previous identification was also published in the Journal of Art Crime by Dr. C. Tsirogiannis (see link below)

In the case of some of these antiquities it seems as (according to the statement of the German auction house) the Italian authorities did not even asked for the return of these antiquities. Also, it appears that the German public prosecutor had released the three antiquities that were initially confiscated after C. Tsirogiannis’ identifications and notification of the German authorities in 2016 at the same auction house.It remains open and one wonders why the Munich prosecution released these previously seized antiquities and, if true, why the Italian authorities have not requested their return.

The information was sent last week to INTERPOL, to the Carabinieri Art Squad in Rome and to the German police Art Squad in Munich.

Literature:

Tsirogiannis, C. (2015), ‘Christie’s 1-10-2015, JAC XIV, Autumn 2015’, Journal of Art Crime, Fall: 27–37.