A shut mouth, a extended chin, laughing eyes. On Tuesday, the “Marble Head of Athena”, valued at an believed $ 3 million, was returned to Italy after many years of show at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, the well-known “Achieved”. This sculpture and fifty-7 other antiquities, thought of stolen, had been returned to Italy by the New York authorities throughout a ceremony.
“We have the privilege of returning it these days,” mentioned Colonel Matthew Bogdanos, head of the Antiques Trafficking Device at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Business office, promising “numerous a lot more seizures and lots of extra repatriations” for the rest of the calendar year. .
Cash are “aspect of our earlier, of our ancestors”
Amongst the objects returned are also a chalice referred to as “White-Floor Kylix”, a “Bronze Bust of Guy”, as effectively as vases, trays and other kitchen utensils. Some came from the assortment of billionaire hedge fund supervisor Michael Steinhardt.
The antiques had been marketed by convicted looters together with Giacomo Medici – sentenced to 10 yrs in jail in 2004 – and Giovanni Franco Becchina – considered the godfather of the artwork mafia – who sponsored raids on unmanned sites in Italy, in accordance to the prosecutor. Manhattan district place of work.
Cash are “portion of our past, of our ancestors,” Italian law enforcement standard Roberto Riccardi explained through the ceremony. “And they belong to the local community. They will return to the neighborhood they belong to and to long term generations. “
Since the early 2010s, Colonel Bogdanos’ device has seized 4,500 cash worth extra than $ 250 million, he explained. The worth of the 58 cash sent on Tuesday is approximated at $ 19 million.
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