Italy unveils 14 artifacts returned by Cleveland Museum
Last Updated: Thursday, July 2, 2009 | 3:07 PM ET
CBC News
A krater, a vase that was used to mix water and wine at banquets, is one of the 14 artifacts returned by the Cleveland Museum of Art. (Andrew Medichini/Associated Press)Italy has unveiled 14 artifacts, including a bronze statue of an archer and a pair of Etruscan silver bracelets, returned by the Cleveland Museum of Art after it was discovered they had once been looted.
It's the latest success for Italy in its campaign to recover artifacts stolen from ancient sites and smuggled out of the country to be sold.
The Cleveland Museum had bought the artifacts in the 1970s and 1980s and said it had no knowledge about the tainted past of the artifacts until contacted by Italian authorities.
Photos and documents related to the returned properties were found in raids conducted in the 1990s on the Swiss warehouses of antiquities dealers accused of controlling the flow of illegal art exports from Italy.
Among the artifacts unveiled Thursday in Italy:
- A bronze statuette of a horned archer made in Sardinia in the ninth or eighth century BC.
- A 14th-century gold-plated processional cross stolen from a church in Tuscany.
- A pair of Etruscan silver bracelets from the sixth century BC.
- Pottery vessels shaped as a donkey head, a pig and a duck.
- A one-metre krater, or vase, that was used to mix water and wine at banquets.
In a deal similar to those made by museums such as the Getty in Los Angeles and the Boston Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum agreed to hand over the treasures in exchange for long-term loans of other artifacts and joint work on future exhibitions.
A 14th-century gold-plated processional cross, stolen from a church in Tuscany, was also returned. (Andrew Medichini/Associated Press)Culture Minister Sandro Bondi said Thursday the artifacts would be returned to their "places of origin" under an Italian plan to display antiquities near the sites where they were found.
''This is a new success for cultural diplomacy and for the work of the magistrates and police,'' he said of the deal with the Cleveland Museum.
''Italy can't be considered a military superpower, and maybe not even a political superpower, but it's certainly a cultural one,'' Bondi added.
The Italian authorities are still in talks with the museum for the return of the so-called Cleveland Apollo and a small bronze Winged Victory chariot.
Italy is also negotiating with Denmark's Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek Museum for the return of artifacts.
A Michigan museum has spontaneously agreed to return two paintings from the Abruzzo capital L'Aquila showing the life of Roman Christian martyr St. Eustace.
