Authorities in New York repatriated to Italy several dozen stolen antiques worth over $3.5 million on Tuesday, as the American megacity tries to shake its status as a vital global hub for the criminal art trade.
According to a statement from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, investigators returned 42 extraordinary pieces – some 2,500 years old – to Italian officials during a ceremony in New York.
“We continue to undo the damage wrought by decades of well-organized antiquities smuggling networks throughout Italy,” Bragg said, adding that more than 200 antiquities have been repatriated to Italy since he took office in 2022.
The leader of the Italian government’s so-called Carabinieri Art Squad, Vincenzo Molinese, praised “the great success of the investigation” due to collaboration between the US and Italy.
Among the items discovered and returned was a vase from the southern Italian area of Apulia dating back to 335 BC. According to investigators, it was stolen from a burial site before being smuggled overseas by Giacomo Medici, a known trafficker of Italian antiquities.
The bowl, which was used to mix water and wine, was confiscated in July from a private collection in New York after transiting through London.
Since 2017, New York prosecutors have repatriated looted items from around 20 countries during the 1970s and 1990s.
Works from ancient Greece, the Roman and Byzantine empires, Iraq, China, India, and Southeast Asia have all been included.
