Italian police exposed a group of criminals involved in the looting of ancient burial sites and illegal exportation of ancient artifacts from Italy to other countries, including in the United States.

The investigation lasted over a year, was discovered about 1700 statues, vases and other valuable items. The earliest of them belong to the pre-Roman period, and the most recent date from the time of the flowering of the Roman Empire.

According to police, all the activities of groups involved 19 people who will soon be brought to the investigators .

As the representatives of the Roman customs police, the attackers are mostly extracted artifacts (among them was even a bronze bust of the emperor Augustus) from graves near Naples and Venice. Some of them are smuggled into the U.S. for sale to collectors.

In recent decades, so Italy had left thousands of valuable objects, which are then settled in private and museum collections around the world. Therefore, in recent years, Italy began to intense international search for the lost treasures, which have already begun to bear fruit. In particular, recently immigration and customs police turned over the U.S. homeland with a fragment of a wall fresco from Pompeii and Corinthian krater - a large vase for mixing water with wine .

Material prepared Ekaterina Guseva, AI

Source: artdaily.com , artinvestment.ru