The precious sculptural group of Orpheus and the Sirens returns permanently to Taranto

The result of a clandestine excavation in an archaeological area in the Taranto area in the 1970s and later illegally exported to the United States of America, the sculptural group of Orpheus and the Sirens is finally coming home. The work, consisting of three almost life-size terracotta statues with fragments of the curls of their hair dating back to the 4th century B.C., most likely belonged to a funerary monument or shrine. As of yesterday, the three priceless statues are permanently placed in the new display of MArTA, the Archaeological Museum of Taranto.

The investigation that allowed the work’s return to Italy was conducted by the Carabinieri of the Comando Tutela del Patrimonio Culturale (TPC), coordinated by the Taranto Prosecutor’s Office with the important support of the District Attorney’s Office of Manhattan-New York (USA) and with the close collaboration of Homeland Security Investigations. The search began when the military discovered that a known suspect in cultural heritage crimes, using an organization with international ties, had carried out a series of trafficking in archaeological artifacts, the proceeds of a clandestine excavation in the province of Taranto.

In the course of investigative activities, it was discovered that the well-known trafficker had played a role in the excavation and illicit export of the sculptural group Orpheus and the Sirens. The precious artifacts, found in fragments, were exchanged among several fences and given, then, to another person who was responsible for transporting them to Switzerland and entrusting them to a restorer who reassembled them, restoring shape to the works. After a period of storage in Switzerland, waiting for a buyer, the sculptures were purchased by the Paul Getty Museum in Malibu (Los Angeles-USA) through the intermediary of a Swiss bank official.

The important Italian-American investigative work, then, enabled the seizure of the sculptural group and its repatriation for return to the national cultural heritage. In the MArTA’s new exhibit, in addition to the statues of ’Orpheus and the Sirens,’ recent finds are also on display as a result of the TPC Operational Department’s activities to combat the illicit trafficking of cultural goods. These goods were recovered from the United States of America between December 2021 and the past few weeks: an impressive body of works with numerous pieces of archaeology from various civilizations.

Statements

“The opening to the public of the MArTA’s new exhibition itinerary, which includes the returned sculptural complex of ’Orpheus and the Sirens’ along with other recovered works, marks an important date for Taranto and its citizens who, at last, take possession of an important piece of their history, culture and identity. An open wound of the community that had suffered not only the theft of this work but, also, its illegal sale and export is healed. I thank the Taranto Prosecutor’s Office, which coordinated the complex investigative activity together with the TPC Carabinieri, in collaboration with U.S. authorities. The Carabinieri’s Carabinieri Cultural Heritage Protection Command once again distinguished itself for the valuable and irreplaceable work it does on a daily basis in all parts of the world to ensure the return to Italy of pieces of national cultural heritage illegally taken from the community,” said Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano.

“The Carabinieri dell’Arte, at the conclusion of complex and articulated international investigations, coordinated by the Taranto Public Prosecutor’s Office, and in close collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, today return Orpheus to its place of origin. The cultural identity of the City of the Two Seas is enriched with yet another wonderful testimony to its thousand-year history. The goal of the women and men of the Carabinieri Tutela Patrimonio Culturale has been achieved: the long journey of Orpheus ends with his return home. Protecting cultural heritage and recovering stolen works of art to return them to their original contexts is the mission entrusted to us. Today is an example of this: with the return of ”Orpheus and the Sirens“ to Taranto, we are witnessing the crowning of the investigative results achieved thanks in part to the fruitful collaboration between the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage and the District Attorney’s Office in New York. A collaboration between institutions of unparalleled effectiveness in the world,” said Vincenzo Molinese, Brigadier General, Commander Carabinieri Tutela Patrimonio Culturale.

“Among the hundreds of works that the TPC Operational Department brought back from the United States between 2021 and 2022 are a series of important Greek, Italiote and Etruscan ceramics as well as votive and architectural terracottas pertinent to different cultures of pre-Roman central and southern Italy. The first exhibition at the Museum of Saved Art, in the Octagonal Hall of the Baths of Diocletian, presented to the public a selection of these important materials that had just been repatriated from the U.S. Now, at the end of a path of research and valorization, these works are finally returning to their territories of origin. Added to this nucleus is the spectacular terracotta group of ”Orpheus and the Sirens,“ which returned from the Getty Museum last September. After a preliminary display in the Museum of Saved Art, the group now returns home to the Museum of Taranto, from whose territory the group was clandestinely excavated in the 1970s. This is a great celebration for the city and the communities in the area to whom a valuable piece of looted heritage is returned,” said Museums Director General Massimo Osanna.

“The protection of the huge cultural heritage that belongs to the Taranto territory constitutes one of the primary objectives that the Taranto Public Prosecutor’s Office pursues through the fight against every form of illicit activity perpetrated in the field of illegal excavations, receiving and clandestine export of archaeological finds. The efforts made in this activity have made it possible in recent years not only to unravel real criminal associations operating in the national territory and abroad, but also to return to the community numerous works of extraordinary cultural importance, and the most significant example is precisely represented by the return to Taranto of the sculptural group ’Orpheus and the Sirens,” notedTaranto Prosecutor Eugenia Pontassuglia.

“It is for the entire Apulian museum system a great honor to welcome the works that from today are permanently acquired by the National Archaeological Museum of Taranto,” said Apulian Museums Regional Director Luca Mercuri, delegated by Prof. Massimo Osanna at the head of the MarTA, “ An honor that we share with this territory that has always been linked to its Museum and that we will celebrate with extraordinary openings of the MArTA and the Orpheus and the Sirens Exhibition Hall, until midnight today, with reduced ticket, and from 8:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Holy Thursday and Good Friday.”

The precious sculptural group of Orpheus and the Sirens returns permanently to Taranto

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