ROME — Italy popular the return Friday of 266 antiquities from the United States, consistingof Etruscan vases and ancient Roman coins and mosaics worth 10s of millions of euros (dollars) that were robbed and offered to U.S. museums and personal collectors.
The returned products consistof artifacts justrecently took in New York from a storage system belonging to British antiquities dealership Robin Symes, authorities stated. In addition, the haul that showedup in Rome consistedof 65 things from Houston’s Menil Collection.
The art system of Italy’s Carabinieri paramilitary authorities stated the owner of the Houston museum collection “spontaneously” provided back the products after detectives figuredout they had come from private excavations of historical websites, according to a carabinieri declaration. The museum did not rightaway respond when asked for remark Friday.
Italy hasactually been on a decades-long project to hunt down antiquities that were robbed by “tombaroli,” or burialplace raiders, and then offered to personal collectors and museums in the U.S. and beyond. The robbery operations included art dealerships who offered the products straight or bymeansof auctions.
Some of the products were handed over to Italian authorities Tuesday at the workplaces of the Manhattan district lawyer