ICE returns stolen and looted art and antiquities to Italy

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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) held a ceremony on Thursday in which U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano officially returned several antiquities and works of art to Italian Ambassador Claudio Bisogniero at the Embassy of Italy in Washington. 

Two 2,000-year-old ceramic vessels, one Roman marble sculpture, one Renaissance painting and three music sheets from choir books dating back to the 13th century were recovered during four investigations by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). All four of the investigations involved the collaboration of HSI offices in New York and Rome and Italy's national police force, the Carabinieri. "The United States and the Department of Homeland Security are proud to honor our commitments to our ally, Italy," said Secretary Napolitano. "We will continue to work to ensure cultural artifacts and treasures that were stolen and entered this country illegally are recovered and returned to their rightful home nations." "The return of several important stolen works of art to Italy marks a new step in the fruitful bilateral collaboration between Italy and the United States. It is an event that falls within the framework of a well consolidated partnership in which our two countries successfully work side by side against all forms of criminal activity," said Ambassador Bisogniero. 

ICE Director John Morton said that events like these send a strong message, that ICE is serious about reining in art and antiquity thieves, smugglers, and traffickers,"we intend to turn the tide on art and antiquity thieves". 

Two of the four investigations have been linked to Gianfranco Becchina, an Italian national allegedly associated with Italian organized crime and a competitor of the Giacomo Medici smuggling organization, which has been identified by the Carabinieri as the most prolific known traffickers of Italian cultural heritage. 

The first investigation tied to Becchina is the case involving the two 2,000-year-old ceramic vessels. In 2009, investigators learned about the sale of an Attic red-figured pelike, circa 480-460 B.C. for $80,500, and a red-figured situla, circa 365-350 B.C. for $40,000, at Christie's New York auction house. The investigation determined that these two objects were looted from archeological sites in Italy and smuggled into Switzerland. The ownership of the objects was transferred before they arrived in a Beverly Hills, Calif., gallery and subsequent consignment to Christie's in New York. HSI special agents in New York seized the objects, and upon authentication, both were forfeited for return. 

The second investigation tied to Becchina involved a Roman marble statue, a janiform herm that was believed to have been smuggled out of Italy into the United States via Switzerland. HSI special agents in New York initiated an investigation into the sculpture which had been auctioned and sold at Christie's for $26,250. It was later seized at Christie's pursuant to a seizure warrant obtained by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York and in May 2011, forfeited to HSI for return to Italy. HSI's investigation concluded that the two ceramic vessels and the statue were removed from Italy in violation of Italian law and brought into the United States in violation of U.S. customs laws and regulations. Specifically, the objects had been removed in violation of a bilateral agreement negotiated by the U.S. State Department, first in 2001 and renewed in 2006 and 2011, between the United States and Italy prohibiting the importation of certain Italian archaeological material into the United States without proper export documents. 

Another of the investigations concerned pages with coloured pictures on them that had been ripped out of Medieval choir books and being sold in 2010 by a "rare book dealer" in Portland, Ore., concerning two illuminated choir book leaves ripped from volumes previously stolen from the St. Paul Church in Pistoia, Italy, in 1990, and the other from the Monastery of Monte Oliveto Maggiore, Siena stolen in 1975. The analogy with artefact hunters ripping collectable geegaws from archaeological sites is an obvious one.
UPDATE 28th April 2012: On the Greek pot see David Gill's "Looting Matters": Aegisthus painter pelike returned to Italy

ICE Press release: 'ICE returns stolen and looted art and antiquities to Italy'  26th Apr. 2012.