Four antiquities collectors in Grosseto stand accused of illicit detention and possession of property belonging to the state after officers from Italy’s Guardia di Finanza seized more than 200 undocumented ancient objects uncovered during asset controls in the garden of a villa. The search and seizure warrant was issued by the Public Prosecutor of Rome. Some…
The ARCA blog obtained the permission of London journalist Howard Swains to republish his Medium article, London’s Loot: The Legacy of Robin Symes, in its entirety. Swains is a journalist and feature writer with experience across print and digital titles, including The Times, the Guardian, Independent, Newsweek, the Sunday Times Magazine and CNN. The article discusses in detail…
By Alessandro Vanzetti. During the night between September 6th and 7th 2017, the mostly wooden structure protecting the Late Roman Villa at Faragola, Commune of Ascoli Satriano, province of Foggia, Apulia, Italy (41°13′41.76″ N, 15°33′35.47″ E) was destroyed by fire. The devastation of the covering structure is total, and the technicians of the Italian Cultural…
For decades it was proudly displayed in the Greco-Roman galleries of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a 2,300-year-old, vividly painted vase that depicts Dionysus, god of the grape harvest, riding in a cart pulled by a satyr. Today it sits in an evidence room at the district attorney’s office in Manhattan after prosecutors quietly seized…
A Swedish academic who bought a rare antique Italian manuscript online from a university student in Bologna has helped police uncover a trove of stolen artwork and books. When his online purchase arrived from Italy to Sweden, the perspicacious professor from Lund University noticed a small antique ink stamp from the “Royal Library of Turin”…
Celebrating a repatriation decades in the making, U.S. and Italian law enforcement gathered in New York on Thursday with ancient statues, flasks and other artifacts set to be returned overseas. Bronzes of a Sardinian warrior and ox from the 8th century B.C., a Greek bronze of Heracles believed to be from the 3rd or 4th…
Seven ancient statues and pottery vessels are headed back to their homeland in Italy after authorities said they tracked down the stolen items in New York City. Dating back as far as the eighth century B.C., the artifacts were looted by Italian tomb raiders in the 1990s, then were smuggled out of the country and…
A recently published article by Nick Romeo at the National Geographic’s webpage describes the work of Dr. Christos Tsirogiannis who detects regularly illicit objects in museum’s collections and auction houses. The article is cited in the following. A few years ago, Christos Tsirogiannis was looking through the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s online collection when he…
Syria and Iraq: Culture at Risk. Illicit Trafficking of Cultural Goods – 31/03/2017, Stockholm (Sweden) In the footsteps of war and unrest, antiquities are being looted from ancient sites and museums. These objects are sold illegally on a growing international market. This trade is a strong threat to proper documentation of our cultural heritage and…
About 200 Etruscan, Apulian and Magna Graecia vases, small statues, ceramics and bronze archaeological finds illegally kept in the house of a former art dealer have been recovered by the Italian police in Cossato, northern Italy. The looted pieces, dating from the eighth to third centuries BC and with an estimated value of well over…
EAA-Community on the Illicit Trade in Cultural Material 