Tuesday 2 December 2014

Predators and Lost Ancient Art in Italy


The journalist Fabio Isman, author of "I predatori dell'arte perduta. Il saccheggio dell'archeologia in Italia [Raiders of the lost art. The looting of archeology in Italy]"(Skira, 2009), recently stated that between 1970 and today, Italy has suffered the heaviest looting of art after Napoleon and the Nazis. he suggests that on a national scale,
«Anzi, dopo il traffico di armi e di stupefacenti questo dei reperti scavati clandestinamente e venduti ai musei, americani, giapponesi, ma anche europei come il Louvre o a privati, è il terzo mercato piú importante. Si tratta di una vera e propria industria».. Oltre un milione di reperti sottratti, piú di diecimila persone coinvolte, Puglia Sicilia e Lazio le regioni piú colpite.[...] Dai tombaroli di professione e domenicali, dai collettori di zona ai trafficanti internazionali ai mercanti fino ai trasportatori, ai restauratori ai falsari, tutti fanno la loro parte e cosí oggetti unici al mondo, lasciano la nostra penisola.
While there will be no doubt many who are going to want to quibble the figures, we get the message that his own work suggests the scale of this is "very serious". Over 1 million objects stolen, more than 10,000 people involved in this criminal activity. And how many buying?

While some of these objects come back (like some of the Getty objects), the 200 items repatriated recently, largely thanks to the activities of Rocco Buttiglione and Francesco Rutelli when they were Ministers for Cultural Heritage, are just the tip of the iceberg.

Erica Culiat, 'Furti d’arte, il Friuli sfugge al saccheggio nazionale', Messaggero Veneto 26 novembre 2014

1 comment:

lalbertson said...

Fabio Isman knows his stuff. He's been a journalist for more than 40 years and has been a major contributor to the Giornale dell’Arte, The Art Newspaper, Art e Dossier, as well as a principle reporter with Il Messegero. He has followed “La Grande Razzia” (The Great Plunder) and illegal excavations in Italy since 1970 as well as conflict politics, the mafia and the “Mani Pulite” political corruption scandal of the 1990s. He knows Italy's looting problem better than most.

 
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