London returns two important stolen Etruscan treasures to Italy

They were about to be auctioned in London, but thanks to an operation conducted by the Carabinieri Tutela Patrimonio Culturale in collaboration with the British Cultural Property Protection Unit, the Metropolitan Police of the English capital was able to recover two important Etruscan treasures that had been stolen from Italy: they are a small terracotta winged sphinx, the existence of which was unknown and which came from a clandestine excavation probably in Southern Etruria, and a bronze statuette depicting a deity that had been stolen in 1988 from the Archaeological Museum in Siena.

“We are very proud to be able to pay tribute to Italian leadership in the field of cultural heritage protection,” British Ambassador Jill Morris explained to ANSA. “We in the UK have learned from Italy, creating a unit of the armed forces dedicated specifically to art and with important diplomatic, police and cultural bodies working together.”

It is not clear how the artifacts ended up in London. Explains Carabinieri General Fabrizio Parrulli: “Easily stolen objects cross two, three even four borders before re-entering the market. The bronze was recognized in an auction catalog as one of the stolen items on the Art Loss Register.”

“The seller,” says Detective Sergeant Rob Upham of the Metropolitan Police Arts and Antiques Unit, “was bona fide and is being treated as a witness. Unfortunately, the person from whom he purchased it has passed away.” Of one of the two objects, the sphinx, as anticipated, not even its existence was known, and it was probably stolen, Parrulli further explains, “during that sad period in the late 1960s-70s that we call the ’raid.’ That is, when grave robbers were in action, who stole so much heritage from us and so many pages of history destroyed.”

At the moment, investigations are still under way that will have to clarify how the two precious artifacts ended up in England: however, the auction house already had doubts about their provenance, and at the moment the investigators’ search has led to the well-known Italian art dealer Giacomo Medici, who was already arrested in 1997. “Both artifacts,” Parrulli added, “are of great historical and artistic value. If they had been sold they would have fetched several thousand pounds.” Now they have been returned to the Ministry of Cultural Heritage: the statuette will return to the Archaeological Museum in Siena, while for the sphinx it will be necessary to understand where it came from.

“For us, this is quite a coup,” Upham emphasizes. “In London we track down finds from all over the world, but of course, a large part comes from Italy, because so much cultural wealth is concentrated here.” But “even we in Italy,” Parrulli concludes, “sometimes recover and return stolen works to the UK.”

London returns two important stolen Etruscan treasures to Italy

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