Aphrodite statue stolen in Foggia returns to Italy

Just on Valentine’s Day, the statue depicting Aphrodite, goddess of love, dating back to the first century AD and stolen from a lecture hall at theUniversity of Foggia in August 2011, returns to Italy.

The investigation began in 2013, when a Bavarian auction house had been noticed offering for sale a find with a very clear Italic origin. Comparison with photos from the Stolen Cultural Property Database enabled the Carabinieri of the Cultural Heritage Protection Unit to identify the object.
With the cooperation of the German police, a German trafficker and an entire trade in archaeological treasures was uncovered. The seller of the statue of Aphrodite, in fact, is a man from Ladispoli, in the province of Rome, who was running a sort of supermarket of both illegally excavated and stolen artifacts. A second personage, his accomplice, was in charge of deliveries abroad, specifically to the German merchant who, in turn, resold all the valuables on the black market.

The German smuggler, investigators explained, often came to Italy to evaluate poached finds and choose the best pieces to resell in Germany. Already in 2016, all the key players in this affair were arrested and at the same time more than 2,500 artifacts were recovered. Only the beautiful Aphrodite, with a commercial value of 350,000 euros, was missing from the list, and it was finally returned in these days thanks to an international rogatory initiated by the Rome Public Prosecutor’s Office. As soon as possible, investigators assure, the sculpture can again be displayed and admired.

Aphrodite statue stolen in Foggia returns to Italy

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