Hundreds of Stolen Artifacts Repatriated to Italy

ROME, ITALY—The Telegraph reports that more than 600 artifacts recovered in joint operations conducted by agents from U.S. Homeland Security Investigations and Italy’s Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage were handed over to Italian officials during a ceremony in Rome. Some of the artifacts had been recovered from antiquities dealers in London and New York, including items that were recently discovered in a storage facility in Brooklyn. The repatriated objects include a mosaic depicting Orpheus playing a lyre to lions, tigers, leopards, bulls, antelopes, a snake, and a tortoise; a silver coin from Sicily dated to the fourth century B.C.; Etruscan wall paintings; a golden laurel crown; a life-size bronze statue; and Greek ceramics dated to the fifth century B.C. The oldest of the objects dates back to the ninth century B.C. “Bringing back to Italy these artifacts helps heal the wounds of the places from where they were stolen, where local communities were deprived of an important part of their identity,” said Gennaro Sangiuliano, Italy’s Culture Minister. To read about bronze statues unearthed at an Etruscan and Roman sanctuary at San Casciano dei Bagni, Italy, go to "Sacred Spring," one of ARCHAEOLOGY's Top 10 Discoveries of 2023.