Dozens of looted artifacts, some dating to the 4th century B.C., made their way to a museum for rescued art in Rome after New York investigators seized the pieces and returned them to Italy this week.
Among 142 antiquities recovered in a criminal investigation is a fresco dating to A.D. 50 and coming from an ancient town that was buried under volcanic ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted.
The painting was looted in 1995 from a villa in the Herculaneum archaeological site, and the hedge fundbillionaire Michael Steinhardt, a prolific collector of art, bought it for $650,000 that year, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
The Ercolano Fresco, showing an infant Hercules strangling a snake, is valued at $1 million and is part of the collection of recovered items worth around $14 million.
The fresco depicting Hercules is one of 142 antiquities recovered in a criminal investigation.
The pieces include a storage jar from 700 B.C. and three pieces of fresco dating to the 4th century and depicting mourning women. The frescos came from an ancient Greek city in southern Italy. Thieves hacked the paintings from the wall of a tomb, New York officials said.
The items will find a new home at the Museum of Rescued Art in Rome, which opened last month in the Italian capital to display recovered artifacts before their return to the regions where they were plundered or lost.
After Italian and U.S. investigators traced trafficked art back to Steinhardt’s collection, he gave up 180 items, including the sections of fresco, late last year and agreed to a lifetime ban on buying antiquities.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said that 48 of the artifacts handed back to Italy at a ceremony in New York on Wednesday came from Steinhardt and that 60 others were recovered from the New York art dealership Royal-Athena Galleries.
“These artifacts deserve a place in their homeland, where the people of Italy can jointly appreciate the marvels of their country’s past,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said.
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