Foto: ROME / ITALY – “$20 Million Worth of Looted Art Returns to Italy From the U.S.”, in: NYT (23/01/2023).

ROMA ARCHEOLOGICA & RESTAURO ARCHITETTURA 2023. Magistrato Paolo Giorgio Ferri, “…Gli Americani…Ladri di Dèi”, in: Rai TV (2010) & NYT (2004 & 2020); S.v., “$20 Million Worth of Looted Art Returns to Italy From the U.S.”; in: NYT (23/01/2023) [Nel testo completo Italiano / English]; anche: Gennaro Sangiuliano & Ambasciata U.S.A. / Twt (23/01/2023) & Senatrice Margherita Corrado – Senato della Repubblica (11/08/2022).

RARA 2023. Magistrato Paolo Giorgio Ferri, “…Gli Americani…Ladri di Dèi”, in: Rai TV (2010) & NYT (2004 & 2020); S.v., "$20 Million Worth of Looted Art Returns to Italy From the U.S."; in: NYT (23/01/2023) [testo completo Italiano / English].
Foto: ROME / ITALY – “$20 Million Worth of Looted Art Returns to Italy From the U.S.”, in: Gennaro Sangiuliano & Ambasciata U.S.A. / Twt (23/01/2023)

1). ROME / ITALY – $20 Million Worth of Looted Art Returns to Italy From the U.S. – The authorities of the two countries have worked together to round up statues, vases and bronzes, some of which had appeared in American museums. The New York Times (23/01/2023) [In complete text / Nel testo completo].

RARA 2022. Aggiornare: 'Petrolio - Ladri di bellezza 2018/2022'; Senatrice M. Corrado / Fb (08/2022) = "Il Getty Museum di Los Angeles restituirà all’Italia un antico gruppo scultoreo"; in: ARTRIBUNE & LA TIMES (11/08/2022)
Foto: Magistrato Paolo Giorgio Ferri; in: Aggiornare: ‘Petrolio – Ladri di bellezza 2018/2022’; Gli studiosi italiani: “Musei negli USA – Restituisci quello che hai rubato!”; in: RAI 1 HD / VIDEO (2018)

ROME — Taken together, the five dozen ancient artifacts displayed at Italy’s culture ministry on Monday would have made a fine archaeological centerpiece for any museum.

The items, dating from the seventh century B.C. to the first century A.D., included well-preserved marble statues, red-figure vases, a silver drinking bowl, even rare bronzes. The artifacts, worth more than $20 million, according to the Italian Culture Ministry, were back on Italian soil after having been seized in the United States by American officials over the past 14 months.

RARA 2023. Magistrato Paolo Giorgio Ferri, “…Gli Americani…Ladri di Dèi”, in: Rai TV (2010) & NYT (2004 & 2020); S.v., "$20 Million Worth of Looted Art Returns to Italy From the U.S."; in: NYT (23/01/2023) [testo completo Italiano / English].
Foto: ROME / ITALY – “Priceless’ Italian artifacts return home from U.S.”; in: Reuters News / Twitter & You-Tube (23/01/2023).

ROME / ITALY – “Priceless’ Italian artifacts return home from U.S.”; in: Reuters News / Twitter & You-Tube (23/01/2023).

Italy is celebrating the return of 60 looted archaeological artifacts worth more than $20 million, many of which had been on display at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art before their illicit origin was discovered.

Fonte / source: Video & Foto; in:

— Reuters News / Twitter & You-Tube (23/01/2023).

Twenty-one of the works had been on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, as well as in private homes and auction houses, before being recovered by American officials, who acted on evidence that they had been illegally looted from archaeological sites in Italy.

RARA 2023. Magistrato Paolo Giorgio Ferri, “…Gli Americani…Ladri di Dèi”, in: Rai TV (2010) & NYT (2004 & 2020); S.v., "$20 Million Worth of Looted Art Returns to Italy From the U.S."; in: NYT (23/01/2023) [testo completo Italiano / English].
Foto: ROME / ITALY – “$20 Million Worth of Looted Art Returns to Italy From the U.S.”, in: Gennaro Sangiuliano & Ambasciata U.S.A. / Twt (23/01/2023)

Gennaro Sangiuliano, Italy’s culture minister, said Monday during a celebratory news conference that the recovered artifacts were the “fruit of a collaboration,” between Italian and American law enforcement officials, that would not end with these 60 works.

Italy has fought for decades to quash the trade in illicitly excavated artifacts, and strenuous negotiations forged deals for the return of dozens of works with several American museums, notably the Met, and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Its efforts have picked up steam in recent years thanks to developments in technology, including easily consulted online databases and improved collaboration with American officials, and in particular the Manhattan’s district attorney’s office.

Culture ministry officials presented two works on Monday: a marble head of Athena, dated circa 200 B.C. and valued at $3 million, and a white-ground terra-cotta kylix, or drinking cup, attributed to the Villa Giulia Painter, dating to the fifth century B.C. and valued at $1.5 million. According to a search warrant, the artifacts were seized last July from the Metropolitan Museum along with 19 other works, many on show Monday.

RARA 2023. Magistrato Paolo Giorgio Ferri, “…Gli Americani…Ladri di Dèi”, in: Rai TV (2010) & NYT (2004 & 2020); S.v., "$20 Million Worth of Looted Art Returns to Italy From the U.S."; in: NYT (23/01/2023) [testo completo Italiano / English].
Foto: ROME / ITALY – “$20 Million Worth of Looted Art Returns to Italy From the U.S.”, in: Gennaro Sangiuliano & Ambasciata U.S.A. / Twt (23/01/2023)

At the time of the seizure, the museum said in a statement that it had fully cooperated with the district attorney’s investigation and that its acquisition reviews have become more rigorous over the years.

“The norms of collecting have changed significantly in recent decades,” the museum said, “and The Met’s policies and procedures in this regard have been under constant review over the past 20 years.”

Among the items returned was a fresco depicting the infant Hercules strangling a snake, which dates to the first century. It is believed to have been looted from Herculaneum, a settlement buried in the Vesuvian eruption of 79 A.D., and decades ago was tracked by investigators to the apartment of Michael H. Steinhardt, a prominent New York venture capitalist and a major ancient art collector. In 2021, after investigators seized 180 stolen antiquities valued at $70 million from Mr. Steinhardt, he agreed to a lifetime ban on acquiring antiquities.

“The old laws only benefit bad guys,” he said. “The bad guys operate at the speed of bandwidth, and we have to do the same that’s why we operate outside the civil negotiating legal bureaucratic process.”

RARA 2023. Magistrato Paolo Giorgio Ferri, “…Gli Americani…Ladri di Dèi”, in: Rai TV (2010) & NYT (2004 & 2020); S.v., "$20 Million Worth of Looted Art Returns to Italy From the U.S."; in: NYT (23/01/2023) [testo completo Italiano / English].
Foto: ROME / ITALY – “$20 Million Worth of Looted Art Returns to Italy From the U.S.”, in: Gennaro Sangiuliano & Ambasciata U.S.A. / Twt (23/01/2023)

Mr. Bogdanos said that under his watch, officials had executed 75 raids involving Italian antiquities and recovered some 500 artifacts valued at more than $55 million.

Also included in the returned pieces was a piece called “Bronze Bust of Man,” dating to the first century B.C., that Mr. Bogdanos said was seized from the collection of Shelby White, a philanthropist, Met trustee and board member. The Art Newspaper reported the seizure in December.

Now that they have been returned to Italy, several of the artifacts will join other repatriated works in an exhibit at a new museum dedicated to recovered art that opened in Rome last summer.

Then they will be relocated to museums near the ancient sites they are believed to have been looted from, “because their identity is linked to that of their community,” said Gen. Vincenzo Molinese, the head of the Italy’s carabinieri art theft squad.

Fonte / source:
— The New York Times (24/01/2023).
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/23/world/europe/italy-art-stolen-us.html

Fonte / source:
— Ambasciata U.S.A. / Twitter (23/01/2023).
https://twitter.com/AmbasciataUSA/status/1617577396911362048

— Gennaro Sangiuliano / Twitter (23/01/2023).
https://twitter.com/g_sangiuliano/status/1617808085283926018

RARA 2023. Magistrato Paolo Giorgio Ferri, “…Gli Americani…Ladri di Dèi”, in: Rai TV (2010) & NYT (2004 & 2020); S.v., "$20 Million Worth of Looted Art Returns to Italy From the U.S."; in: NYT (23/01/2023) [testo completo Italiano / English].
Foto: ROMA / ITALIA – Restituiti all’Italia 60 opere d’arte e reperti archeologici trafugati: valgono 20 milioni / foto: 1 di 32; in: Sky Tg24 (23/01/2023).

2). ROMA / ITALIA – Restituiti all’Italia 60 opere d’arte e reperti archeologici trafugati: valgono 20 milioni / foto: 1 di 32; in: Sky Tg24 (23/01/2023).

Hanno una datazione compresa tra il settimo e il primo secolo dopo Cristo, erano stati rubati da trafficanti internazionali e sono stati recuperati negli Stati Uniti grazie a un’operazione congiunta tra i Carabinieri per la Tutela del patrimonio culturale e il New York County District attorney’s office. Tra le opere rimpatriate, l’affresco pompeiano ‘Ercole fanciullo con serpente’ del I secocolo d.C.

Fonte / source:
— Sky Tg24 (23/01/2023).
https://tg24.sky.it/cronaca/2023/01/23/opere-arte-reperti-archeologici-italia#00

RARA 2022. Aggiornare: 'Petrolio - Ladri di bellezza 2018/2022'; Senatrice M. Corrado / Fb (08/2022) = "Il Getty Museum di Los Angeles restituirà all’Italia un antico gruppo scultoreo"; in: ARTRIBUNE & LA TIMES (11/08/2022)
Foto: Senatrice & Archeologa Margherita Corrado / FB (11/08/2022); s.v., Foto: “Petrolio Ladri di bellezza”; in: RAI 1 HD (08/12/2018).

3). RARA 2022. ITALIA / USA – Aggiornare: ‘Petrolio – Ladri di bellezza 2018/2022’; Gli studiosi italiani: “Musei negli USA – Restituisci quello che hai rubato!”; in: RAI 1 HD / VIDEO (2018) & Senatrice & Archeologa Margherita Corrado / Fb (08/2022) = “Il Getty Museum di Los Angeles restituirà all’Italia un antico gruppo scultoreo”; in: ARTRIBUNE & LOS ANGELES TIMES, USA (11/08/2022) [Italiano & English]. https://wp.me/pbMWvy-337

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