The sculptural group of Orpheus and the Sirens has returned to Italy. It will enter the collection of the MArTA

The terracotta sculptural group depicting Orpheus and the Sirens has returned to Italy from the United States. The Getty Museum has, as announced in August, returned to Italy the work that illegally left our country.

Under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and thanks to the support of the General Directorate for Museums, the priceless sculptural group will be displayed at the Museum of Saved Art, inside the National Roman Museum, from Sept. 18 to Oct. 15, 2022, and then it will be transferred to the Archaeological Museum of Taranto to join its permanent collection. The almost life-size terracotta work, dating to the fourth century B.C., stolen in the 1970s from an archaeological site in Taranto and later acquired by The Paul Getty Museum in Malibu, will in fact return after the Roman exhibition to its homeland.

The repatriation was made possible thanks to the complex investigative activity conducted in Italy and abroad by the Carabinieri of the Archaeology Section of the Operational Department of the Cultural Heritage Protection Command (TPC), coordinated by the Taranto Prosecutor’s Office, in collaboration with the District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and Homeland Security Investigations (H.S.I.).

Operation Orpheus, aimed at countering the illicit trafficking of archaeological goods of Italian provenance internationally, was developed on several occasions by the Archaeology Section of the TPC Operations Department. The impetus came when the military discovered that a known suspect in crimes against cultural heritage had set up a series of trafficking in archaeological finds, the proceeds of clandestine excavation in the province of Taranto, making use of an organization with international extensions. In the course of investigative activities, it was ascertained that the notorious trafficker had played a role in the events related to the clandestine excavation andillicit export of the sculptural group named Orpheus and the Sirens that took place in the 1970s. In fact, from the documentation identified and the investigations carried out, it was established that the precious artifacts had been excavated and found in fragments at a Taranto site by some local grave robbers, who had sold them to a well-known local fence, with contacts in organized crime, who, in turn, had sold them to another fence, with international contacts and owner of an art gallery in Switzerland. The sculptures, in fragments, were entrusted to another person who specialized in transferring cultural property abroad, who carried out the transport to Switzerland, where they were entrusted to a restorer who reassembled them and reshaped 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 - U.S.A.) through the intermediary of a Swiss bank official.

The information shared with Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bogdanos of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office (DAO) and the close cooperation established with that office and Homeland Security Investigations enabled the seizure of the priceless sculptural group and its repatriation, for return to Italian cultural heritage.

The terracotta sculptural group depicts Orpheus and two Sirens. According to myth, Orpheus defeated the Sirens during the Argonauts’ return voyage near an island in Sicily or southern Italy. Orpheus’ victory over the Sirens symbolically represents the triumph of musical harmony, a key concept in Pythagorean philosophical and political thought that was particularly prevalent in the cities of Magna Graecia. The work was produced in this very Greek environment of the West, specifically in an atelier in Tarentum, where it would in fact have been discovered. Coming perhaps from a funerary monument or shrine, it dates to the late 4th century BC.

“Yet another important return of an extraordinary masterpiece of art that had been illegally taken from the heritage of the Italian state,” says Dario Franceschini, Minister of Culture. “As we have now defined, after passing to the Museum of Saved Art, the sculptural group will return to the territory from which it was snatched, in Taranto, and will thus enter the heritage of the city’s National Archaeological Museum. Thanks are due to the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, which again on this occasion, thanks to the strong collaboration with the American authorities and police forces, allowed the return of the masterpiece to Italy. Thanks also to the Italian authorities, particularly the Taranto Public Prosecutor’s Office.”

“An extraordinary recovery of a unique masterpiece of Greek art of the 4th century B.C., clandestinely excavated in the territory of Taranto,” says Massimo Osanna, Director General of Museums, “and it is precisely to the Marta Museum in Taranto that it will return. The sculptural group represents an ancient myth and, perhaps, adorned the tomb of an adept to the Orphic mysteries, one who, by leading a life in purity, ensured the soul an afterlife. The Sirens, who look up to Orpheus, are not as we imagine them today, that is, women with fish bodies. They are depicted as hybrid figures of woman and bird, according to the earliest iconography, which will be superseded by the one we are most familiar with only in the Middle Ages. The group was originally painted, and we can assume that, thanks to the painting, there was an intense interplay between the sculptures, which really constitute a unique specimen because rarely was a mythical scene like this represented in terracotta; we have no parallels in the ancient world.”

“The return of Orpheus and the Sirens is one of the most important recoveries ever, in the history of the Carabinieri for the Protection of Cultural Heritage and in the history of Italy. The beauty of Legality, having obtained by judicial means the return of the property, mirrors the legality of Beauty, an investigation put at the service of a find of unparalleled artistic value. It seems impossible that so many centuries ago our ancestors were able to accomplish so much. Yet they were, and offering this sculptural group to the gaze of all can remind us where we come from and what goals we are capable of achieving,” commented Roberto Riccardi, commander Carabinieri Tutela Patrimonio Culturale.

“When a work of art of such inestimable value returns to its territory of origin, it is a great achievement for everyone, not only for the world of art and archaeology, but for the entire country, which is regaining a fundamental piece of its origins and thus of its culture,” added Stéphane Verger, director of the National Roman Museum, “and we are pleased to welcome in the Museum of Saved Art, created just for this, the first great success such as the recovery of the Orpheus and the Sirens after the inauguration of this space.”

The sculptural group of Orpheus and the Sirens has returned to Italy. It will enter the collection of the MArTA

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