TORONTO – A third-century terracotta sculpture, a 17th-century Venetian cannon and a marble sarcophagus lid are among 25 ancient artifacts making a trans-Atlantic trip after the United States returned the looted items to Italian authorities.
Many of the pilfered artifacts spent years in U.S. museums or private collections They were either seized by police or handed over to U.S. authorities after being noticed by investigators in Sotheby’s and Christie’s auctions, or as a result of customs searches.
U.S. Ambassador John Phillips praised the collaboration between U.S. Homeland Security and Italian art investigators, known as the Carabinieri Tutela Patrimonio Culturale, during a press conference today.
“Italy is blessed with a rich cultural legacy and therefore cursed to suffer the pillaging of important cultural artifacts,” Phillips said. ” The collaboration between agents from HSI and investigators from the TPC has borne fruit in returning some important artifacts to their rightful home in Italy.”
Among the artifacts returned is a 17th-century Venetian cannon seized by U.S. border patrol agents after being smuggled from Egypt inside construction equipment.
Other artifacts included an ancient Roman marble sarcophagus lid seized by Homeland Security special agents in New York. The 1,800-year-old marble lid, sculpted in the shape of a sleeping woman, was for sale in an art gallery in New York for more than $4 million before it was found and seized in February 2014.
There’s also a 5th-century B.C. Etruscan black figured Kalpis smuggled into the U.S. in 1981 before being discovered in Cleveland; and a manuscript from the 1500s stolen from Turin in 1990 that ended up in the University of South Florida’s special collections.
Phillips said Interpol estimates illicit trading of cultural property is a $9 billion-a-year industry.
“The crime may be ancient, but the perpetrators are very modern,” he told reporters in Italy. “The use of the Internet has provided these criminals the ability to acquire, transport, advertise and sell valuable cultural property swiftly, easily and stealthily and while making it easier to evade detection by law enforcement agencies.”
Italian authorities said the looted cultural items were recovered after a campaign that used the courts and public pressure to compel museums to return the important pieces. They added that most collectors were willing to return the artifacts after learning they had been stolen.
A Minneapolis museum director contacted the Italian culture ministry after reading that Etruscan vases on display at the Toledo Museum of Art and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts was suspected stolen.
Phillips said that since 2007, the U.S. has returned more than 7,600 objects to over 30 countries and foreign citizens.
With files from the Associated Press
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