Stolen Roman frescoes returned to Pompeii after Investigation

Collectors in the future will not thank people with artefacts now that can't be bothered with keeping the documentation. If the police come knocking and they can't show that they have title to an object in their collection, they may lose it. Six fragments of Roman frescoes have been returned to Pompeii, some after being illegally trafficked in the 1970s (Angela Giuffrida Stolen Roman frescoes returned to Pompeii after investigation Guardian 18 May 2021)

Six fragments of wall frescoes stolen from the ruins of ancient Roman villas have been returned to Pompeii’s archaeological park, after an investigation by Italy’s cultural protection police squad. Three of the relics, which date back to the first century AD, are believed to have been cut off the walls of two Roman villas in Stabiae, a historical site close to the main Pompeii excavations, in the 1970s before being exported illegally. [...] Police found the relics during a broader investigation into the illicit trafficking of archaeological objects in 2020 and discovered that they had been bought by American, Swiss and English antique dealers in the 1990s.

The dealers were unnamed. caveat emptor.