Italy said it repatriated 266 ancient artifacts worth tens of millions of euros from the United States, where they had been brought and sold during the late 1990s by an international network of artifact smugglers.
The items, the oldest of which date back to the 9th century BC, include works belonging to the periods of the Etruscan civilisation, Magna Graecia and Imperial Rome. A statement from a specialist unit of Italy’s carabinieri police on Friday said the return of the artifacts was due to the cooperation between Italian and US judicial authorities.
The statement said 145 pieces were recovered as part of bankruptcy proceedings against an antiquities dealer. The Italian statement said a further 65 artifacts had come from the Menil Collection museum in the US city of Houston. However, a spokesperson for the museum said it had been offered the artifacts as a gift but had referred the donor to the Italian Minister of Culture who alerted the museum that Italy was claiming the objects.
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