In Italy, found illegally excavated Etruscan funerary urns
ARTinvestment.RU   28 июня 2013

This is one of the largest finds of objects of Etruscan culture. The artifacts appear to have been accidentally found the builders near Perugia. On the finding is not reported to the authorities, but tried to sell on the black market baskets

Italian police reported finding 23 Etruscan funerary urns, which were trying to sell on the black market. This is one of the largest finds of objects of Etruscan culture of recent decades. Urns are made of white Italian limestone, decorated with carved reliefs, many of them are perfectly preserved. The artifacts date back to III - I centuries BC

established place of origin of these boxes - is the tomb near the town of Perugia, which belonged to an aristocratic Etruscan age. Most likely, this place accidentally stumbled workers in laying the foundations of new buildings, but to report the find did not. Instead, found this place items sold on the black market. The looting came about ten years. During this time, according to experts, the tomb could extract up to 3,000 artifacts, including the now discovered urns.

A new source Etruscan objects for the black market police learned two years ago, when it was possible to delay the famous dealer with photos, as well as a small head carved from limestone - a fragment of a bas-relief of one of the boxes. Apparently the dealer has demonstrated to potential customers that head to prove to them the presence of objects depicted in the photographs.

In urns, police seized a bronze helmet, weapons, sculptures with traces of gilding and a variety of ceramic vessels. In the case of detained five suspects.

Prepared by Mary Onuchina, AI

Sources : ansa.it , nytimes.com , reuters.com , artinvestment.ru