ITALY'S TREASURE TROVES COME HOME
Italy continues its successful drive to recover art and antiquities which have been exported illegally from the country and subsequently purchased by leading museums, particularly in the USA.
Several prestigious US museums – the Getty of Los Angeles, the Forham Museum of New York and the Museums of San Antonio and Cleveland, as well as galleries and private homes, recently restituted a record 200 historic artefacts that were proved to have been smuggled out of Italy over the past years.
The items have been delivered to the Italian consulate in New York to be handed over to Brig. Gen. Roberto Riccardi, head of the TPC (Carabiniere for the Protection of Cultural Heritage and Anti-Counterfeiting), attached to the Italian Ministry of Culture. This highly specialized art and antiquities squad was founded in 1969 – the first law enforcement body in the world dedicated to protecting art and heritage.
The TPC can count on the help of Leonardo – a vast data base listing and describing well over one million stolen articles.
Among the most spectacular successes have been the return of the Etruscan Euphonious Krater from the Metropolitan Museum of New York and the Morgantina Venus, a Paul Getty Museum prime exhibit, proved to have come from an illicit dig in Sicily and returned in 2010 after a long legal battle.
War is still waging between the Italian Culture Ministry and the Paul Getty Museum for the return of the museum show piece: the “Victorious Youth”, a Greek bronze attributed to Lysippos, that was pulled out of the Adriatic sea at Fano (Marche) by fishermen in 1964 and bought by the Getty for $4 million in 1977. In 2006, the then Minister of Culture, Francesco Rutelli, threatened to enforce an embargo on the loan of Italian art if the statue was not returned. Despite an apparent agreement reached in 2007, the issue has not yet been settled. The battle of the Victorious Youth (also known as the Fano Athlete) still has to find a winner.
Info: www.beniculturali>carabinieritpc
