The attention of experts drew three things that could be extracted from the field of illegal excavations in Italy

Auction house Christie's call to withdraw from trades ancient works, scheduled for June 10, three items of value that can be extracted from the field of illegal excavations in Italy.

The experts' attention attracted a Roman marble torso of II century AD. Oe., Apulian Bowl IV century BC. Oe. and ancient Greek terracotta statuette of the goddess, dating from III century BC. Oe. Exact information about the history of existence of these works until 1980-90-ies in the auction catalog does not contain. It merely stated that the terracotta figurines, which has estimeyt in 8000 dollars, was sold at auction in London in 1984 that the Apulian basin, estimated at 35 thousand dollars, comes from a private American collection and was purchased in New York in 1994 . A history of the marble torso of sales (estimate 30 thousand dollars) can be traced to only 1992, and now he put up for sale a collector from Massachusetts.

According to experts, these three items are the number of stolen antiquities, which in 1995 were confiscated by Italian police from an art dealer Giacomo Medici (Giacomo Medici) and photographed on Polaroid. In 2004, the Medici was convicted of trafficking in stolen artifacts and sentenced to 10 years in prison, and the archive of photos called "Archives de 'Medici. Since then, many items, imprinted on these pictures have been returned to Italy.

prosecutor in Rome, Paolo Ferri (Paolo Ferri), specializing in art theft, said he learned about impending sale since the publication of directory, and now intends to seek the return of the three artifacts to their homeland.

He was supported by a teacher of archeology at the University of Swansea in Wales, David Gill (David Gill), a professor of archeology at Cambridge University, Baron Renfrew from Keymstorna (Baron Renfrew of Kaimsthorn), now retired, as well as a researcher at the University of Cambridge Tsirogiannis Christ (Christos Tsirogiannis), formerly employed as an archaeologist at the Ministry of Culture of Greece. They all insist on the fact that Christie's is necessary to remove all three items at the auction, if he can not prove their legal origin.

Representatives of the auction house, in turn, said they had no intention of giving up Sales torso, bowls and figurines, as no official statements about the ownership of these items are not received. Moreover, none of the works is not in the database Art Loss Register and Interpol. Therefore, the decision to withdraw these lots from the auction may be made only in case of a formal statement about the ownership of them.

material prepared Ekaterina Guseva, AI

Source: wsj . com , artinvestment.ru