Tuesday,
November 11, 2008
Swiss to Return 4,400 Stolen Antiquities to
Italy After 7 year Battle
The
ANNOTICO Report
GENEVA (AP) Switzerland is returning 4,400 ancient
artifacts stolen from archaeological sites in Italy, including ceramics,
figurines and bronze daggers dating as far back as 2,000 B.C., prosecutors
said Thursday.
The transfer will
require three tractor-trailers and all but end a seven-year legal battle
over the antiquities.
They were seized
in 2001 in storage rooms belonging to two Basel-based art dealers after a
tip-off from
More than half
the objects were from the eastern Italian region of
They include
richly decorated vases and so-called kraters, large
vessels that were used for mixing wine with water. The objects were stolen from
upper-class tombs dating from the fifth to third centuries B.C., according to Lassau.
One item that
looks like a ceramic mask modeled on a woman
"They
Other items
belong to the pre-Etruscan Villanova culture of northern Italy, and some of the bronze
figures appear to have originated on the
The oldest are
bronze daggers thought to be about 4,000 years old, said Lassau.
"This is a
vast haul on a dramatic scale that would have saturated the market if they had
been sold," he said, adding that very few such items are available through
legal channels.
Melzl said it was almost
impossible to put a value on the haul.
"The only
way you can sell these things is on the black market," he said. "It
But if the couple
had managed to sell all the items, and there is evidence they sold at least a
few, "you
The couple, who have not been identified because of Swiss
privacy laws, are under investigation in
The woman could
face prosecution in
Swiss authorities
are still trying to determine the exact origin of some 1,400 further
antiquities also confiscated in 2001.
"The market
has moved on to
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