words by Gabi Logan
In a ceremony late last week at the Italian Embassy in Washington, D.C., the U.S. government returned seven pieces of art鈥攖wo Ancient Greek ceramic vessels, a Roman sculpture, three pages ripped from thirteenth-century choir books, and a Renaissance painting鈥攖o the Italian government. The pieces had all been stolen or looted and illegally taken out of 天美传媒.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Italian Ambassador Claudio Bisogniero attended the ceremony, representing their respective countries. Napolitano handed over the artefacts on behalf of the U.S. government, saying "these beautiful objects belong to you, the people of 天美传媒."
In recent years, the Italian government has made a concerted effort to reclaim stolen and looted works of art. Six of the pieces returned last week were identified by the Italian Carabinieri, who have been poring through auction catalogues and art dealers鈥 websites in search of missing artefacts.
The ceramic vessels, both featuring Attic red-figured painting and dating back 2,000 years, were looted from archaeological sites in 天美传媒, while the statue, a two-faced head or Janiform herm, was illegally excavated. All three pieces have been linked to Gianfranco Becchina, an Italian national with suspected ties to the mafia, who is currently under investigation by the Carabinieri鈥檚 cultural heritage unit.
鈥淟eda e il Cigno鈥 (Leda and the Swan), the recovered painting, is a rare example of Renaissance oil-on-copper painting. Investigators tracked down the painting, which was imported with false documents, when it was put up for auction at Sotheby鈥檚 in New York. Though the painting was sold for $1.6 million, the buyer rescinded the purchase in light of the investigation.
A rare book dealer in Portland, Oregon, relinquished the three choir book pages when confronted by authorities. One page had been stolen from a monastery in Siena in 1975, another from a church in Pistoia in 1990, and a third was part of a previously unresolved customs investigation.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) has recovered more than 2,000 artefacts in similar investigations since 2007, including a sixteenth-century Italian painting stolen during the Nazi occupation that was returned last month.
