Recovered by Carabinieri bronze statuette from the 4th century BC.

The Archaeology Section of the Operational Department of the Carabinieri Cultural Heritage Protection Command has recovered a bronze statuette depicting a maiden with a dove dating back to the 4th century B.C.

The work was kept until 1943 at the Baths of Diocletian in the Roman National Museum. It had later been spotted in the “zu Allerheiligen” museum in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, which had received it as a donation from a prominent Swiss industrialist and collector.

Investigations by the Carabinieri had made it possible to reconstruct the whole affair concerning the theft and receiving of the statuette. The story of the work had begun with its discovery in 1903 in an excavation campaign of the Temple of Juno in the archaeological area of the ancient city of Norba Latina and musealized at the Baths of Diocletian.

The theft occurred during wartime: the sculpture was located in the 1960s in two major U.S. museums, which had displayed it and published it in their respective catalogs. Later the Carabinieri had spotted it among the photographs of a Zurich restorer. This made it possible to reach the town of Schaffausen, where the work was reported to be on display after its donation in 1991.

The international letter rogatory made it possible to repatriate the statuette.

The work is now on display at the Quirinal Palace during the ongoing exhibition L’arte di salvare l’arte, which aims to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage.

Source: MiBAC

Recovered by Carabinieri bronze statuette from the 4th century BC.

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