New York judge orders return of 58 looted works of art to Italy
Of these 58 works, 21 were captured from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, one of the largest and most prestigious art museums in the world.
The New York State Attorney for the Borough of Manhattan, Alvin Bragg, estimated the value of the works at “nearly $19 million”.
Getty Images via AFP
A New York judge returned to Italy on Tuesday after 58 looted and stolen works of art, some of them dating back to Roman antiquity, were in international transit to the United States and the prestigious Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Following a ceremony with Italian Consul General Fabrizio Di Michele, New York State Attorney for the Borough of Manhattan, Alvin Bragg, announced in a statement that 58 antiquities valued at “almost $19 million” would be returned to “the Italian people.” According to Alvin Bragg, these 21 pieces were seized from the “Metropolitan Museum of Art” (Met), one of the largest and most prestigious art museums on the planet.
“Robbers”
“These 58 pieces represent thousands of years of rich history; yet smugglers across Italy resort to thieves to steal them and line their bags,” he said. “They have long been enthroned in museums, residences and art galleries without ownership rights,” protested lawyer Bragg.
The works were smuggled by “Giacomo Medici, Giovanni Franco Pecina, Pasquale Camera and Edoardo Almaggia”, who “sold them to Michael Steinhardt, one of the greatest collectors of ancient art in the world”, condemned Alvin Bragg.
Since 2020, New York State Justice has been engaged in extensive art restoration: from summer 2020 to the end of 2021, at least 700 pieces were returned to 14 countries, including Cambodia, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Iraq, Greece or Italy. American collector Michael Steinhardt was forced to return in 2021 about 180 antiquities stolen in recent decades worth $70 million.
“Intensive and Effective Cooperation”
A deal between a New York judge and Michael Steinhardt allows him to escape prosecution, but it bans him from buying works on the legal art market for life. Among the works returned to Rome is a “marble head of Athena from 200 BC, stolen from central Italy, smuggled out of Giacomo Medici’s network, and eventually landed at the Met in 1996.
But B.C. Or a 1st century AD bronze bust of a man “smuggled by the Parisian art dealer Robert Hecht to another dealer in Switzerland and eventually sold to someone in upstate New York”.
Italy’s Consul General, Fabrizio Di Michele, praised the “vigorous and effective cooperation between Italian and American authorities, particularly with the New York prosecutor’s office, in the recovery of looted or stolen antiquities.”
AFP
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