PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

North American museums have long been seen as acquirers of material derived from archaeological sites in Italy. In 1972, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (MMA), under the directorship of Thomas Hoving, acquired the Attic red-figured calyx-krater that showed the death of Sarpedon before Troy (the “Euphronios krater”).^{Footnote 4} This was hailed as a major acquisition but soon attracted considerable attention. Philippe de Montebello, the director of the MMA had been a major critic of attempts by Italy and other countries to regain cultural property.^{Footnote 5} In 1993, the museum agreed to return the so-called Lydian hoard of silver plate to Turkey that had been acquired over a number of years in the late 1960s.^{Footnote 6} In February 2006, the museum announced that it would be returning the Sarpedon krater as well as the 15 pieces of silver plate associated with the archaeological site of Morgantina in Sicily, an Attic amphora, and an Apulian dinos. In 2017 a Paestan krater attributed to Python was handed back after it had been identified from images in the Medici dossier.^{Footnote 7}

In September 2006, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts announced that it had come to an agreement with Italy.^{Footnote 8} A year earlier, it had rejected the concerns of Italy, but it quickly announced that it would be returning 13 items ranging from a major portrait of Sabina, the consort of Hadrian, to Attic and southern Italian pottery. Full histories were provided for each of the returned objects and placed on the museum’s website.

The J. Paul Getty Museum has made several returns to Italy. In 1999, it handed back the Euphronios/Onesimos cup and, in 2005, the Asteas krater, made in Paestum, as well as an Etruscan candelabrum and a Greek inscription.^{Footnote 9} In 2001, the museum returned approximately 3,500 fragments of Corinthian and Italo-Corinthian pottery that appear to have been derived from a site at Francavilla Marittima. More recently, the museum made a major announcement timed to coincide with Thanksgiving Day 2006.^{Footnote 10} A second statement covering additional material was issued in August 2007. The overall returns include the Morgantina statue of “Aphrodite,” painted marble sculptures from southern Italy, wall painting fragments from Campania, as well as Attic and southern Italian pottery.^{Footnote 11} Although the press release only listed the objects that were due to be returned, the museum staff helpfully supplied further details that made it possible to reconstruct part of the histories. One of the other wall-painting fragments, formerly part of the Lawrence and Barbara Fleischman collection, was returned in 2009. Marble fragments acquired from Robin Symes in 1988 was returned in the spring of 2012. A further piece—a terracotta head of Hades—was handed over in 2013. The head’s full collecting history appeared to have come to light as the museum prepared for a major loan exhibition on “Sicily.”^{Footnote 12} In 2017, a seated marble Zeus, formerly part of the Fleischman collection, was handed over to the Italian authorities after a fragment was identified from near Naples. Many of the returned objects were acquired by Marion True, a curator who was simultaneously trying to make the Getty’s acquisition process more rigorous.^{Footnote 13}

In 2007, two acrolithic sculptures on loan to the University of Virginia Art Museum in Charlottesville (Virginia) were returned to Sicily. They were clearly related to the “Aphrodite” returned from the Getty. These acrolithic statues appear to have been looted from Morgantina around 1979 and were then handled by Robin Symes who sold them, in 1980, to Maurice Tempelsman for some US $1 million.

The Princeton University Art Museum came to an agreement with Italy in October 2007. Some material would be returned to Italy, but seven items retained in Princeton were legally transferred to Italy. The returned items included an Attic red-figured psykter that was featured in the Memoirs of Robert Hecht. Subsequent to this announcement, in December 2011, Princeton agreed to return a further batch of material to Italy, including large numbers of Etruscan terracotta architectural fragments that had been acquired over several years.^{Footnote 14} Some of the second group of objects were linked to the dealer Edoardo Almagià. They included the 157 Etruscan architectural fragments that had been presented to the museum in 1996. Part of the same series, a fragment given to the museum by the Aboutaam brothers of Switzerland, had been returned in the first batch of returns. The Ny Carlsberg in Copenhagen has returned some 500 antiquities to Italy, including a large number of fragmentary Etruscan architectural terracottas.^{Footnote 15}

The Cleveland Museum of Art agreed to return 14 objects in November 2008. The items included Apulian pottery and silver Etruscan jewelry. Few details were provided about the histories.^{Footnote 16} However, it was possible to provide additional information, such as for the two Etruscan bracelets given to the museum by Almagià and Courtney Keep in honor of the former curator Arielle Kozloff. The majority of the Cleveland material included southern Italian pottery, several pieces of which were the gift of Jonathan P. Rosen. A further returned piece was a marble portrait head of Drusus Minor that was acquired in 2012.^{Footnote 17} This had been acquired with the suggestion that it had come from an old Algerian collection, but research by Italian academics demonstrated that it had been excavated at Sessa Aurunca in Italy and placed in an archaeological store.

The Minneapolis Institute of Art was a reluctant participant in the negotiations. There was a single disputed Attic red-figured krater that was identified from both the Medici dossier and the Schinousa archive.^{Footnote 18} The public account was that it had formed part of private collections in England and Switzerland. The identification had been made public in November 2005, but the institute had not opened negotiations with the Italian authorities. However, after the director, Kaywin Feldman, issued a carelessly worded public statement in defense of the acquisition of an Egyptian mummy mask by the St Louis Art Museum, pressure was applied to the institute to return the krater.^{Footnote 19} This took place in 2012.

One of the earliest reports of potentially looted material in North American museums had included the mention of an Etruscan hydria attributed to the Michali painter in the Toledo Museum of Art. The museum agreed to return this in 2012, and it was handed over to Italian authorities in January 2013. The hydria had been acquired from Becchina in 1982. One less well-publicized transfer of ownership related to a Villanovan impasto hut acquired by the Fordham University Art Museum.^{Footnote 20} This collection had been formed by William D. and Jane Walsh from the mid 1970s and had been given by them to Fordham in 2006. Few of the pieces had histories that could be traced back to the period before 1970. The collection also includes Roman imperial bronzes that appear to belong to the Sebasteion at Bubon in Turkey.

The highly publicized scandal relating to the Almagià material returned by Princeton to Italy prompted the director of the Dallas Museum of Art, Maxwell Anderson, to identify material that came from the same source in his collection.^{Footnote 21} This formed part of a voluntary return to Italy; in addition, a Roman mosaic was handed over to Turkey. Anderson has had a well-established and nuanced approach to the issue of recently surfaced antiquities. At Emory University, he had established the Emory University Museum International Loan Project scheme that had encouraged the loans of major archaeological material from Italy such as one exhibition on Roman funerary portraits, another on archaeological material from Syracuse, and a third on Roman colored marbles.^{Footnote 22} The unprompted investigation by Dallas appears to have allowed the objects to remain in the museum as loans from the Republic of Italy.

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS: UNRESOLVED CASES

Although significant returns have been made from public museums, additional archaeological material in other collections has been identified from the Polaroid images. While some of these acquisition habits can be traced back to the period before the 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property (1970 UNESCO Convention), some of the more recently surfaced and disputed pieces are in North American collections.^{Footnote 23} For example, the marble statue of a boy acquired by Virginia in 1989 from Galerie Nefer appears to have featured in a transaction between Mario Bruno and Becchina in 1987.^{Footnote 24} The same museum also has a Gnathian askos that it acquired in 1980 from Fritz Bürki.^{Footnote 25} Toledo has an Attic red-figured skyphos attributed to the Kleophon painter that has been identified in the Medici dossier.^{Footnote 26}

There continue to be unresolved disputes with museums outside North America. The Miho Museum in Japan has often been cited in media reports and reportedly contains some 50 disputed objects.^{Footnote 27} One of the objects that has been cited is a Roman marble oscillum.^{Footnote 28} European museums have been notably absent from the instances of significant returns. The Italians took legal action against Leiden’s Rijksmuseum van Oudheden for the return of a cuirass from Greek cavalry armor, acquired in 1998, but the Dutch courts rejected the claim in 2004. Some 15 objects acquired by the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam had been handled by dealers and auction houses such as Elie Borowski, Palladion Antike Kunst, Robin Symes, and Sotheby’s in London. The Museo Archaeológico Nacional in Madrid acquired the collection of Greek pottery formed by Várez Pisa.^{Footnote 29} Some 22 pieces from this collection are reported to be featured in the seized dossiers of photographs from Medici, Becchina, and Symes. All of these examples suggest that the issue of acquiring recently surfaced archaeological material derived from Italy has not been confined to museums in North America but that it has been a global phenomenon.

PRIVATE COLLECTORS

In 2000, classical material in private collections that had been placed in a series of public exhibitions in North America and Europe formed the basis of a major study.^{Footnote 30} One of the striking things to emerge from this piece of research was that a high percentage of the objects had no stated histories that could be traced back to the period before 1973 (the date of the adoption by the Archaeological Institute of America of their statement relating to illicit antiquities) and the 1970 UNESCO Convention. Two of the collections had been formed by Shelby White and Leon Levy and displayed at New York’s MMA as “Glories of the Past” and by Barbara and Laurence Fleischman in an exhibition displayed in the Getty and at Cleveland as “A Passion for Antiquities.”^{Footnote 31} The collection of George Ortiz had been displayed in the Royal Academy of the Arts in London as “In Pursuit of the Absolute.”^{Footnote 32}

These collections were formed, no doubt, by a genuine interest in the past. The exhibition titles indicate the way that these objects were viewed: “In Pursuit of the Absolute” suggests the hunter, the chase, and the capture; “A Passion for Antiquities” again evokes the idea of the search; and “Glories of the Past” suggests that these objects were the pinnacles of ancient art that have been received into this newly formed collection. The thinking behind this last title evokes the exhibition of the Hunt brothers, “Wealth of the Ancient World,” suggesting that the objects within the show were somehow valued and valuable in antiquity.^{Footnote 33} Such a position is clearly in tension with the ancient values.^{Footnote 34}

One of the issues that has been overlooked by these collectors is that the real “treasures” and valuable objects have rarely survived from antiquity. Chryselephantine statues on the scale of Pheidias’ mid-fifth century bc Olympian Zeus or Athena Parthenos have not survived the destruction of pagan temples in Late Antiquity. An exception would be the Roman ivory mask that was returned to Italy after being seized in London.^{Footnote 35} Gold plate that features so prominently in temple inventories and classical texts rarely survives, though exceptions may include the Panagyurishte treasure from Thrace or the gold phiale returned to Italy from the collection of Michael Steinhardt.^{Footnote 36} The same is also true for silver plate, though some stunning examples have survived such as the gold-figured silver plate from the burials at Duvanli, the royal burials at Vergina, or the Berthouville treasure from northern France. Such material is largely absent from these private collections of “Wealth” and “Glories.” Instead, there is an emphasis on objects such as figure-decorated pottery made in Athens and southern Italy. It is clear from ancient commercial trademarks scratched on the base of Athenian pottery that this category of ancient “art” was relatively cheap.^{Footnote 37} For example, an Attic red-figured pelike may be priced in obols, whereas a silver phiale could be worth 1 mina (the equivalent of 100 drachmas or 600 obols) in bullion value alone. Yet Athenian and southern Italian pottery has been privileged by the attribution of the pots to largely anonymous artists creating workshops, groups, and spheres of influence. The implications of this research into ancient values and the tension with the commercial value placed on modern collections of antiquities have been realized by those involved in the market.^{Footnote 38}

Research on these private collections has suggested that many of the objects did not have established and extensive histories. Simon Mackenzie, a criminologist, has been critical of this approach, suggesting that it would be inappropriate to suspect objects of being “looted” just on the grounds of an absence of a full collecting history.^{Footnote 39} However, the emergence of the Medici dossier has identified objects from two of these private collections: Barbara and Lawrence Fleischman and Leon Levy and Shelby White. A substantial number of the returns from the Getty included objects that had either been purchased or been received as a gift from the Fleischmans. Two of the items were fragments of a Roman wall painting that seemed to come from the same composition as a fragment in the Shelby White and Leon Levy collection. One wonders how these fragments were separated as they passed through the market and ended up in separate collections. The Fleischman returns included Attic and southern Italian pottery. Additionally, the couple had also donated a Campanian bird askos to the Cleveland that has separately been returned to Italy.^{Footnote 40}

The Fleischman material was returned to Italy once it had been acquired by the Getty. However, Shelby White still retained the objects that had been formed with her husband. In January 2008, she finally came to an agreement with the Italian authorities to return 10 items, although the Kyknos krater attributed to Euphronios was not returned until 2010.^{Footnote 41} Two further objects were handed over to Greece in July 2008, and a disputed statue of the weary Herakles, which had also once formed part of their collection, was returned to Turkey from Boston.^{Footnote 42} Several, though not all, of the items had appeared in “Glories of the Past” exhibit.^{Footnote 43}

These two prominent New York couples, with strong links to major North American public museums, feature prominently in the returns, but they are not the only North American collectors who owned material that has been returned to Italy. The Hunt Brothers had endeavored to corner the world silver market, but when their efforts were curtailed, they were encouraged to turn their attention to antiquities under the guiding curatorial hand of some individuals who perhaps hoped the collection would one day be passed to their museums.^{Footnote 44} Due to financial difficulties, the collection was dispersed and passed into other private collections. The Kyknos krater attributed to Euphronios passed into the Leon Levy and Shelby White collection, and the Etruscan antefix representing a satyr and a maenad entered the Fleischman collection, appearing on the cover of the catalogue of their collection; it subsequently formed part of the Getty’s collection. The Athenian red-figured cup attributed to Euphronios had a complex history passing through the hands of Giacomo Medici and returning to Italy.^{Footnote 45}

The Getty material also included a group of objects that had been derived from the jeweler Maurice Tempelsman.^{Footnote 46} The stunning painted marble griffins killing a doe had formed part of his collection; a picture from the Medici dossier shows Medici posing in front of the group in the Getty. Other items from Tempelsman include a marble Apollo. He also owned the two acrolithic statues that were returned from Virginia to Sicily.

Another group of antiquities formed part of the Kluge collection, owned by financier John Kluge and Patricia Kluge.^{Footnote 47} Returned material include bronze figures of an athlete and a Nike, both stolen from museums in Italy, an Attic black-figured krater attributed to the Bucci painter, an Attic lekythos attributed to the group of Palermo 16, and a Paestan lekythos acquired from a Swiss private collection. In addition, nine former pieces from the Kluge collection are reported to be in Madrid and form part of the Italian investigation.

Dietrich von Bothmer had curated the Greek and Roman collection at the MMA for several decades until he was succeeded by Carlos Picon in 1990. He was well known as a collector of pottery fragments, and some of these had been featured in the returns from the Getty, notably the red-figured krater attributed to the Berlin painter and the Onesimos cup. It is reported that Bothmer donated over 100 such fragments to the Getty, although their histories remain unclear. In January 2012, a carefully worded notice that omitted to name the owner announced that 40 fragments had been returned to Italy.^{Footnote 48} It appeared that some of them fitted pots that had already been returned to Italy such as the Onesimos cup returned from the Getty. The Italian press subsequently revealed that they had belonged to Bothmer. The MMA eventually published a token number of images on the Association of Art Museum Directors’s (AAMD) Object Registry, and one image showed the fragments for an Attic red-figured cup that was in the Villa Giulia in Rome.^{Footnote 49} These specific fragments have now been returned.

Another collector of pottery fragments was Robert Guy, one-time curator at Princeton. He donated fragments for the Attic amphora attributed to the Berlin painter that was acquired by the MMA and returned to Italy alongside the Sarpedon krater. Yet the photographs from the Medici dossier indicate that the amphora passed through Medici. It remains unclear how fragments of it came into Guy’s possession. Guy himself was the source of the large group of pottery fragments that were purchased by Harvard University Art Museum.^{Footnote 50} This collection of potsherds was defended by James Cuno, a former director at Harvard, who considered them to be insignificant.^{Footnote 51} Yet it is now clear from both raids in Rome and a study of the returned finds that near complete pots could be broken up as they passed through the market, and the pot restored by the final destination museum.

Among the private collectors represented in the returns was Jonathan Rosen. Five of the Cleveland objects had been donated by him. He had also contributed to the purchase of the Attic red-figured psykter that had been acquired by Princeton. He was also closely associated with the loan exhibition of Italian material in private collections that was displayed in Switzerland.^{Footnote 52} Rosen himself has been associated with the 10,000 cuneiform tablets returned from Cornell University in 2013.^{Footnote 53}

Some of the private collectors are little known. For example, among the returns was a Roman marble head from the collection of Mr and Mrs Charles W. Newhall III. This had been purchased through the Montreal market. The head was identified from the Becchina photographic archive. Other private individuals listed as former owners from among the Getty material may have formed part of the complex acquisition plans of dealers outlined by Bruce McNall, owner of Summa Galleries. In his autobiography, he explains how he worked with Jiri Frel to acquire objects that the Getty’s board would otherwise be unwilling to acquire.^{Footnote 54} It seems that potential objects for purchase were identified, and private individuals would then be invited to acquire and donate them with tax benefits.

CORPORATE OWNERS

Some individuals may have acquired objects as an investment that could be realized in their future sale. This is reflected in the formation of the Athena Funds where objects were laid down and then sold at a major sale. Thus, for example, the Roman silver “Swiss army penknife” (now in the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge) was sold through this fund even though its only previous history was its viewing in a Soho safe.^{Footnote 55}

Classical sculptures are seen as appropriate backdrops for private houses and living spaces, but they have also been used by corporations. In 2011, two Roman statues—one representing Fortuna—were returned from Humana, a healthcare company.^{Footnote 56} One had been acquired from the Merrin Gallery in New York in 1984. The Fortuna had been stolen in Rome in October 1986.

DEALERS AND GALLERIES

The last 20 years have been dominated by a series of high-profile seizures from dealers in Switzerland. The journalistic investigation into the operation of the antiquities department at Sotheby’s in London has established the supply of classical objects from Italy via middlemen in Switzerland.^{Footnote 57} Sotheby’s subsequently took the decision to cease selling antiquities in London and transferred the activity to New York. It has also encouraged a more rigorous due diligence search for antiquities appearing in their sales that has led to a significant decrease in toxic lots.

When archaeological items stolen from the home of Marchesa Alessandra de Marchi in the Torre Paola at San Felice Circeo in April 1986 surfaced at Sotheby’s in London in May 1987, Italian investigators pursued the leads.^{Footnote 58} It was revealed that Editions Services S.A had consigned the items. The prosecutor in Latina sent a formal request for further information to their colleagues in Switzerland in April 1995, and this allowed Giacomo Medici to be identified as the owner of the company. The investigation led the Italian authorities to Medici’s warehouse facilities in the Geneva Freeport. The raid in September 1995 revealed a significant number of objects (approximately 3,800) as well as a major dossier of Polaroid photographs documenting the pieces that had been handled by the dealer. It is this dossier that helped to make positive identifications with objects in various international collections.^{Footnote 59}

Yet Medici was not the only dealer operating out of Switzerland. Raids in Basel recovered a significant number of objects from the premises associated with Gianfranco Becchina. Alongside them were photographs and other documentary evidence that has helped to identify other material. The objects associated with Italy—some 4,400 items—were returned in three trucks in November 2008. These items were finally displayed to the public in a major press event at the Terme di Diocleziano del Museo Nazionale Romano in January 2015. This attracted major public attention not least because the haul was valued at over €50 million.

In 2009, Operation Phoenix returned 251 antiquities worth around €2.7 million from Phoenix Ancient Art based in Geneva. Many objects seem to have been derived from Etruria and southern Italy. The raid on this gallery was significant as this business has also handled such high-profile objects as the Ka-Nefer-Nefer Egyptian mummy mask acquired by the St Louis Art Museum and the Leutwitz bronze Apollo acquired by Cleveland.^{Footnote 60}

In June 2010, Operation Andromeda contributed to the return of some 337 antiquities worth €15 million to Italy. They had formed part of the stock of the Japanese dealer Noryioshi Horiuchi, who was based in Switzerland. Horiuchi was associated with the supply of objects to the newly established Miho Museum in Japan and was known to have business connections with Becchina.

Not all of the raids have taken place in Switzerland. The British authorities seized some 27,000 objects worth US $250 million from 29 warehouses across London.^{Footnote 61} These were associated with the London-based dealer Robin Symes.^{Footnote 62} In addition, raids on Symes’s villa on the Greek island of Schinoussa allowed the authorities to gain access to a third major archive of photographs and documents. The Italian authorities have requested the return of the seized objects from the government of the United Kingdom, but there has been no satisfactory resolution to date.

These major, high-profile raids have provided a snapshot of the workings of the networks of antiquity dealers. The seizure of documentary evidence and photographs of items that have passed through these same dealers in previous years has allowed further identifications to be made. In November 2007, the Royal-Athena Galleries (RAG) in New York agreed to hand over eight items. Three of the pieces had been stolen from Italian collections between 1970 and 1975, and two of them had resided in the Morven (i.e., Kluge) collection. In spite of this claim, RAG continued to handle material that could be identified from the photographic archives. In 2010, Christos Tsirogiannis was able to identify 15 items on sale by RAG that could be identified from the Medici, Becchina, and related photographic archives. RAG has also been associated with the inadvertent handling of material stolen from the archaeological museum in Corinth in 1998. It should be noted that, in June 2012, Dr Jerome Eisenberg, the proprietor of RAG, was awarded the Order of the Star of Italy by the Italian authorities for his cooperation with the investigations into the illicit market.

Other Manhattan galleries have been linked to returned material. In 2011, a bronze Zeus was returned to Italy. It was recognized that this figure had been stolen from Muzeo Nazionale Romano in 1980. The statue had surfaced in North American exhibitions in 1982 and 1983 with the (clearly false) claim that it had formed part of a Swiss private collection in the 1960s. In 1984, the statue was identified as the property of Edward H. Merrin of New York (hence, the Merrin Zeus). By 1988, it formed part of the Fleischman collection and appeared in the exhibition “The Gods Delight: The Human Figure in Classical Bronze.”^{Footnote 63} It was subsequently sold at Sotheby’s New York in December 2004. The Zeus was returned to Italy with a marble female torso that had been stolen from the museum in Terracina in 1988. It had been spotted in a New York gallery by a member of the Italian Carabinieri who had been on holiday in New York.

A Roman wall painting from Boscoreale was seized from an unspecified Manhattan gallery in 2009.^{Footnote 64} It had been stolen from the archaeological store at Pompeii around 1997. Five other fragments stolen from the same store at the same time had previously been returned to Italy. Another unnamed Manhattan gallery returned six antiquities to Italy in April 2017.

Several pieces have been returned from Christie’s in New York. One of the most important seizures was associated with the June 2009 sale. Prior to the sale, a Corinthian krater was seized. This had first surfaced in an auction at Sotheby’s in 1985. After the sale had taken place, two further items were seized and subsequently returned: an Attic pelike attributed to the Aegisthus painter and an Apulian situla. Both of these pieces had passed through Bruce McNall’s Summa Galleries in Los Angeles, surfacing in 1977 and in the mid-1980s. Christie’s again do not seem to have strengthened its due diligence process, and material identified from the seized photographic archives has continued to appear in its auctions.^{Footnote 65} Interestingly Christie’s has tended to reject the identifications and press ahead with the sale of the lots, although this has sometimes meant that their value has been diminished or that lots have been left unsold. Three pieces were identified in the June 2010 sale, including a youth with a cockerel, the property of a Massachusetts private collector, which had surfaced at a Christie’s auction in London in 1997, although the catalogues failed to note that it had originally surfaced at Sotheby’s in London in July 1992. The Apulian rhyton had surfaced through Sotheby’s in New York in June 1994. A Canosan terracotta had surfaced in London in July 1984 and had passed into an English private collection. Concerns were raised in the press, but Christie’s continued with the sale. Paolo Ferri commented on the action, suggesting that Christie’s was acting unethically.^{Footnote 66} Two of the pieces were sold, and one was unsold.

More recently, a Sardinian figure, owned by Michael Steinhardt, was offered at auction at Christie’s. An outcry by politicians in Sardinia led to diplomatic approaches to the US authorities. The figure was withdrawn from the auction. Steinhardt is not without interest as he is also a member of the American Advisory Board of Christie’s. Bruce McNall has been discussed as the person behind some of the returned material such as the collection formed by the Hunt Brothers or the items acquired by the Getty. Another dealer who has been linked to the returns is Edoardo Almagià. His name was associated with Etruscan silver bracelets that were returned from Cleveland; the items had been given by Courtney Keep in honor of the museum’s curator Arielle Kozloff. Revelations in the June 2010 New York Times led to a further investigation into material acquired by Princeton.^{Footnote 67} In December 2011, the museum claimed that six items had been transferred to the Italians. They included an Attic red-figured calyx-krater that had been attributed to Euphronios. However, one of the “items” consisted of 157 terracotta architectural fragments from an Etruscan temple, and a further item consisted of five architectural fragments. Interestingly, these Etruscan objects were linked to an architectural fragment already returned by Princeton that had been provided by the Aboutaam brothers. The revelation meant that Maxwell Anderson conducted an urgent review of any material in Dallas that had been acquired from Almagià, and after a posting on the AAMD’s Object Registry, they were returned to Italy.^{Footnote 68} Other museums have also been identified as acquiring objects from Almagià, and it is unclear the state of their internal enquiries into the objects.

The seizures have not all taken place in New York. In October 2010, a statue of Zeus stolen from the Norwegian Institute in Rome was returned from an unspecified London dealer. A Roman marble sarcophagus stolen from the Chiesa della Modonna della Libera di Aquino in 1991 was recovered in London as part of Operation Giovenale. In 2008, the sale of the antiquities collection formed by the Australian dealer Graham Geddes at Bonham’s in London was disrupted when the Italian authorities asked for a number of lots to be withdrawn, including the Athenian krater that had featured on the front of the auction house’s magazine that was advertising the sale.^{Footnote 69} In the end, 10 lots were withdrawn from the sale, of which seven had surfaced at Sotheby’s in London between 1984 and 1989. Geddes’s name had already been associated with a Lucanian nestoris returned from Boston, and his name appeared against a Lucanian krater that was linked to Medici.

COMMON PATHWAYS

One of the common routes for this archaeological material to enter the market is through Switzerland. Objects have been identified from the Medici and Becchina photographic archives suggesting that they formed the stock in Italy. Several pieces in Boston were sold by the restorer Fritz Bürki. They include the statue of Sabina. The Fleischman collection included a Pontic amphora and an Apulian bell-krater that had been handled by Bürki. At least one object in Madrid appears in a photograph of a group of objects that appear to have been in Bürki’s bathroom studio. It was reported that some of the Cleveland material was derived from Bürki. It appears that some 350 pieces handled by Bürki appear in a series of photographs that are in the possession of the Italian police.

Peter Watson’s investigation into the paperwork relating to the department of antiquities at Sotheby’s demonstrates a link between Medici, his Swiss agents, and Sotheby’s.^{Footnote 70} Consignment lists to Sotheby’s contain material that can be identified. So far, at least seven objects that have been returned to Italy could be demonstrated to have passed through Sotheby’s in London. This “toxic” route also caused problems for the sale of the Geddes collection at Bonham’s in London when several pieces had to be withdrawn.

One of the areas that has not yet been investigated is whether or not Medici made consignments to Sotheby’s in New York. However, it is clear that a handful of pieces identified from the dossier did enter the market via that route, including an Apulian rhyton that surfaced in 1994 and a Peucetian clay stamnos in 1995. These examples raise the specter that there could be further disruptions to unsettle the market, museums, and collectors.

The Attic krater returned from Minneapolis had been recorded as forming part of a Swiss private collection.^{Footnote 71} However, it appears in a Polaroid within the Medici dossier. It seems that the krater had been passed from Medici to Symes who had sold the piece to Minneapolis. This relationship means that the histories of material handled by Symes need to be investigated.^{Footnote 72} His connection with objects has caused disruption at a number of sales including Bonham’s in London and Christie’s in the Rockefeller Centre. Bonham’s has been linked to other items that have been withdrawn from sales or left unsold at auction. Apart from the Geddes sale, these items include a Roman marble statue of a youth that had surfaced through Sotheby’s in London but was identified from the Medici dossier.^{Footnote 73}

In terms of fragments, there is concern that complete pots may have been deliberately broken and their fragments passed to individual collectors or dealers who then sold or donated the objects so that they could be reunited in the target museum. An area that has not been explored is the attribution of Athenian and southern Italian pottery to named, largely anonymous, pot painters. It is unclear when scholars were shown the pots or fragments for attribution or if they were unaware that they were commenting on recently surfaced material. It would be of some concern if any of them received payments in kind.

THEMES OF MATERIAL

What sort of archaeological material from Italy was being acquired by North American museums and private collectors? Pottery dominates the returns. Many of the items are complete pieces that are likely to have been removed from graves where they had been protected (with their funerary assemblages) for some 2,500 years. The pottery falls into two main groups: Athenian and southern Italian.

The Athenian pottery is dominated by the Sarpedon krater returned by the MMA. The association with Euphronios leads to further companion pieces.^{Footnote 74} One is the Kyknos krater returned by Shelby White, and another is the fragmentary calyx-krater (consisting of four pieces) in Princeton. Linked to these pieces is the cup that had formed part of the Hunt collection and had passed into the holdings of Medici.

Three pots attributed to the Berlin painter have been returned. Among them is a fragmentary krater that had been acquired by the Getty from 1977 to 1990.^{Footnote 75} Among the donors or vendors of the fragments were Dietrich von Bothmer, Herbert Lucas, Vasek Polak, Frederick H. Schultz, Jr, and Robin Symes. A further set of 35 fragments were loaned in 1989 reportedly from Medici. An amphora attributed to the same painter was returned from New York’s MMA.^{Footnote 76} Robert Guy supplied some 15 additional fragments. The amphora was identified from the Medici dossier when it was in “the early stages of restoration.” Finally, a hydria was returned from Boston.^{Footnote 77} This had been acquired from Bürki.

Southern Italian pottery is well represented among the returns.^{Footnote 78} Apulian pottery forms a major component. One of the best represented painters is the Darius painter: a volute-krater from Cleveland, an amphora from Boston, a loutrophoros from Princeton, a pelike from the Getty, and a dinos from New York. A pot attributed to the Darius painter was returned as part of Operation Andromeda. The Madrid collection also contains a work attributed to the Darius painter. Works attributed to the Darius painter also feature prominently in a supposed tomb group acquired by Berlin.^{Footnote 79}

Etruscan material features regularly in the returns. The largest group consists of a series of architectural fragments from a temple that was returned by Princeton. Other terracotta architectural fragments include the satyr and Maenad or the two separate groups of fragments from the Getty. Princeton’s return included an Etruscan tufa lion. Other returned pieces include Etruscan bronzes and sculptures.

Roman material is less visible in the returns. One of the reasons may be that it is harder to associate material culture with a specific modern nation-state as such items can be found across the lands formally occupied by the Roman Empire. Among these pieces of sculpture are the Roman portrait of Sabina, the marble Fortuna, and the series of sculptures returned from the Getty that may be associated with a villa complex in southern Italy. Three fragments of Roman wall painting from the same composition were returned from the Getty (that had formerly formed part of the Barbara and Lawrence Fleischman collection) and the Shelby White and Leon Levy collection. Other wall-painting fragments were returned as part of Operation Andromeda.

MEMORANDUMS OF UNDERSTANDING AND RECIPROCAL LOANS

One of the ways that the US and Italian authorities have worked together to try and reduce the amount of looting of archaeological sites in Italy has been through a bilateral agreement first made in 2001, amended and extended in 2006 and 2011, and amended and extended in 2016.^{Footnote 80} This agreement has sought to identify cultural property that is specifically linked to Italy that would encourage a more thorough investigation when imported to the United States. Controversially, the agreement has been expanded to include certain categories of ancient coins.^{Footnote 81} This has been opposed rigorously by lobbying groups representing numismatic dealers not just in North America but also in Europe who are concerned that part of their potential market could be restricted.

Part of the bilateral agreement encourages the Italian authorities to protect archaeological sites and their heritage. The level of looting can be measured in part by the apparent decrease in seizures by the Carabinieri. Concerns have been raised about the deterioration of some complex archaeological sites such as Pompeii as evidence that the Italian authorities are not concerned about their cultural heritage. However, all national governments have been facing fiscal pressures during the present economic crisis, and the preservation, protection, and conservation of extensive long-excavated remains that are open to the elements is an issue that remains a long-term problem. It is also a reminder that the excavation of archaeological remains needs to include a long-term plan for the display, interpretation, and protection of remains that are deemed worthy of public display.

The bilateral agreement has also made provision for the loan of archaeological remains from the major holdings of museums in Italy. These loans have included the bronze chimaera in Florence that was placed on loan to the Getty and Attic pottery that was loaned to the MMA. In addition, the Italians have co-curated a major loan exhibition on Sicily that was displayed in the Getty and in Cleveland.^{Footnote 82} University and civic museums such as Dallas, Fordham, and Princeton have been allowed to retain some of the objects that they have acquired, although the legal title has been transferred to the Italian authorities. This reflects the Italian authorities’ willingness to avoid unnecessary disruption to public displays while asserting their legal rights over looted cultural property.