While on the topic of rival claims for the Leutwitz Apollo, another story, though apocryphal, seems worth putting down here too. Readers of Bennett's book will know that he surmises that it was actually dug up a long time ago in Rome (by the way which has had laws about the protection of objects like this since the Renaissance...). Anyhow, (and I have much of this courtesy Dr Dorothy King) Italian archaeologists claimed to have a joining piece years back, pre 2008.
They apparently said it was was from "a villa site not far from Rome". This story apparently never made it into print, but was just something Italian archaeologists told Dr King and others verbally, and - she says - they told Cleveland. Her contacts claimed there would be a big announcement "soon" but that never appeared. It is therefore anyone's guess whether this was an empty boast (how could they tell it was "joining"?), a bluff, or there are some reasons why this information has not yet been made public (criminal investigations maybe).
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