ROMA.- Antiquities stolen, sold illegally and finally recovered have a sanctuary in Italia, he Museo of Saved Artinstalled in the Baths of Diocletian, in the center of Rome, and in which the history of the works exhibited.
The panels next to each work tell how they were looted during clandestine excavations in Etruscan necropolises north of Rome or in the region of Puglia, the way in which they were illegally removed from Italy through networks of antiquaries, and their sale to foreign collectors. .
Some of these objects were sold or donated to large American museums, explains the director of this museum, the French archaeologist Stephane Verger.
For years Italy has initiated legal and diplomatic procedures to recover them. The latest success was the recovery of three terracotta statues representing Orpheus and the mermaidswhich the Getty Museum in Los Angeles agreed to return to Italy in 2022 after recognizing that they came from illegal excavations.
Back in their homeland, the trio is on display at the Museum of Saved Arts in an exhibition on Italian terracottas.
The museum wants to present these recovered works in thematic exhibitions. “The objects will not stay here,” explains Verger. “After being exhibited for a time they will be repatriated to Italian museums,” which would have exhibited them if they had not been sold illegally, he indicates.
grave robbers
“Clandestine excavations have very negative consequences on the knowledge of ancient cultures,” laments Verger.
In the case of necropolises, especially those targeted by the famous tombaroli (tomb looters), a stolen object is a loss in itself; But ignoring the exact circumstances of its discovery irreparably alters the knowledge that could be extracted from it.
The museum is temporarily closed for renovations as Rome prepares for the Jubilee of 2025, a year declared holy by Pope Francis, during which millions of Catholics are expected in the eternal city.
A transitory state that echoes the way it was conceived: in perpetual motion. In each exhibition the museum must change format to be able to value the antiquities it houses.
And there is still much to do. At the beginning of May, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in favor of Italy in the dispute between it and the Getty Museum regarding the ownership of The Fano athletesplendid bronze statue until now exhibited in the United States.
The statue from the 4th century BC, discovered 60 years ago in the Adriatic Sea by Italian fishermen on the coast of Fano (central-eastern), was immediately sold and changed hands several times before Italy could exercise its right of first refusal.
The work, depicting a naked athlete (or the Macedonian prince Demetrius Poliorcetes according to some), reappeared on the art market in 1974 and was acquired in Munich by the J. Paul Getty Museum for $3.9 million.
An example of an emblematic route of the pieces looted in the Italian territory, cradle of multiple civilizations that is still full of treasures to be discovered.
FUENTE: AFP
