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Newsletter archive |
Success stories 
March 2006 Objects of Inspection The Italian government and the MFA are nearing a showdown over artworks some insist are stolen. Which ones? Nobody's saying for sure. The Boston Globe, March 19, 2006
More Artifacts Returned to Iraq Museum After a ruling by the city's high-ranking clerics banning trade in antiquities and demanding their return, residents of the city of Najef turned over more than 200 pieces that had been stolen. Azzaman.com, March 19,2006
Charge Filed in Missing Artifacts Case John Carta, a resident of Kailua-Kona, was arrested for stealing 150 Hawaiian artifacts that had been reburied in a cave under the Native American Graves Protection and Reparation Act. KPUA, March 18,2006 The Hawaii Channel March 17,2006
Their hands in the tombs There can be no more spluttering denials - the Metropolitan and the Getty have been caught doing big business with looters. The Age, March 18, 2006
Police recover 300 Roman coins, brooches, rings As part of an Italian crackdown on art theft, police seized three hundred 4th century BC-6th century AD Romain coins and twenty-two Roman bronze artifacts from a home north of Rome and several antiquities from a neighboring home. ANSA, March 14, 2006
French, German nationals arrested over alleged treasure theft Indonesian NAtional Police arrested two European men on charges of removing national treasures without a permit and seized from them seven containers of antiquities that had been recovered from sunken ships in the sea off of Java and the Bangka-Belitung Islands. The Jakarta Post, March 10, 2006
ICE returns cultural antiquities to Saudi ambassador The U.S. Department of Homeland Security just returned to the Saudi Arabian government 132 pounds of ancient coins that had been illegally removed from a shipwreck in the Red Sea in 1994. The coins had been surrendered to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in April 2005. March 6, 2006
February 2006 Stolen Iraqi artifacts run to ground in Spain Spanish police recovered twenty-one Babylonian and Sumerian artifacts that had been stolen in southern Iraq in 2003 and were scheduled to be auction in Madrid. MetTimes, February 22, 2006
Museum to return Homer vase The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced that it would return to Italy the Euphronios KRater, a 6th century BC terracotta vase that was stolen from the Etruscan tombs at Cerveteri in 1971. Evidence of the krater's illicit provenance emerged last year during the trial of Giacomo Medici, a Roman antiquities dealer who said he had acquired it from tomb robbers and then sold it to American dealer Robert Hecht who sold it to the Metropolitan Museum. The Metropolitan Museum has also pledged to return an additional nineteen works of disputed ownership. NY Times, February 6, 2006
January 2006 Parthenon statue fragment to be returned Heidelberg University announced plans to turn over to the New Acropolis Museum an 8 x 11 cm fragment of the Parthenon frieze, which has been in its collection since 1871. This will be the first time that any piece of the Parthenon sculptures has been returned to Greece from abroad. The Houston Chronicle , January 9, 2006 The Art Newspaper , February 20, 2006 We thank the Museum Security Network Mailinglist and Cultural Property Protection Net Mailinglist for their work. |
