I Predatori dell’Arte at Villa Giulia
The National Etruscan Museum at Villa Giulia is displaying several hundred antiquities from among the thousands illegally exported and now repatriated to Italy. They are mainly from central and southern Italy and are part of an exhibition that documents a decade-long criminal investigation and legal battle to obtain pieces that were sold abroad after clandestine excavations all over Italy.
Alongside display cases of repatriated Etruscan artefacts from Cerveteri and Vulci are descriptions of the methods of trafficking and laundering antiquities such as Polaroid photographs of broken and reassembled pieces inside tombs, receipts from auction houses and an art dealer’s journal. The antiques were usually exported to Switzerland and stored in a bonded warehouse in Geneva, before being re-sold to museums and private collectors all over the world. Read moreFor similar news stories visit http://culturalsecurity.net/newssummary.htm