Italy celebrates getting back 600 antiquities that were taken and sold years ago and recovered as a result of criminal investigations

Italy on Tuesday celebrated the return of around 600 antiquities from the US, including ancient bronze statues, gold coins, mosaics and manuscripts valued at €60m ($65m), that were looted years ago, sold to US museums, galleries and collectors and recovered as a result of criminal investigations.

US ambassador Jack Markell, Matthew Bogdanos, the head of the antiquities trafficking unit of the New York district attorney’s office, and members of the US Homeland Security Investigations department were on hand for the presentation alongside the leadership of Italy’s culture ministry and carabinieri art squad.

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    Italy on Tuesday celebrated the return of around 600 antiquities from the US, including ancient bronze statues, gold coins, mosaics and manuscripts valued at €60m ($65m), that were looted years ago, sold to US museums, galleries and collectors and recovered as a result of criminal investigations.

    US ambassador Jack Markell, Matthew Bogdanos, the head of the antiquities trafficking unit of the New York district attorney’s office, and members of the US Homeland Security Investigations department were on hand for the presentation alongside the leadership of Italy’s culture ministry and carabinieri art squad.

    Markell said that Washington DC was committed to returning the stolen loot “to where it belongs” as a sign of respect for Italy and its cultural and artistic heritage.

    Not included in the latest haul from the US was the “Victorious Youth” ancient Greek bronze statue, the object of a decades-long court battle between Italy and the Malibu, California-based Getty Museum.

    Among the most valuable artifacts on display Tuesday was a fourth-century Naxos silver coin depicting god of wine Dionysius that was looted from an illicit excavation site in Sicily before 2013 and smuggled to the United Kingdom.

    Other items, including oil paintings from the 16th and 19th centuries, had been stolen from Italian museums, religious institutions and private homes in well-documented thefts, the carabinieri said.


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