Digital Editions
Newsletters
Subscribe
Digital Editions
Newsletters
Art market
Museums & heritage
Exhibitions
Books
Podcasts
Columns
Technology
Adventures with Van Gogh
Art market
Museums & heritage
Exhibitions
Books
Podcasts
Columns
Technology
Adventures with Van Gogh
Museums & Heritage
news

Germany returns artefacts—including a Venetian jewellery box stolen in 2006—to Italy

The recovered items also include a Corinthian bronze helmet and four Roman-Byzantine gold coins

Catherine Hickley
6 June 2023
Share
Some of the returned objects were offered for sale © Bayerisches Landeskriminalamt

Some of the returned objects were offered for sale © Bayerisches Landeskriminalamt

At a ceremony in Rome, Germany on Monday returned 14 smuggled artefacts recovered by police that were stolen from Italian museums or illegally excavated.

The objects included a Corinthian bronze helmet from the third or fourth century BC that is presumed to have been excavated illegally in Sicily. Also among the returned items were four Roman-Byzantine gold coins stolen from the National Archaeological Museum in Parma in 2009 and recovered from dealers and private owners in Germany, and a 16th-century Venetian jewellery box that was stolen from Milan’s Castello Sforzesco in 2006. The wooden box, inlaid with carved bone and produced by the renowned Embriachi workshop, was smuggled via Britain and Belgium to Germany, where it was offered for sale.

Acting on information provided by the Carabinieri in 2019, Bavarian police seized an Attic band cup dating from about 550 BC and decorated with images from Greek mythology from a Munich auction house where it was to be illegally offered for sale, the Bavarian state crime office said in a press release.

“The fight against the illegal trade in cultural heritage can only succeed if we work together,” German Culture Minister Claudia Roth said in a press statement.

Guido Limmer, the vice-president of the Bavarian police, said the returns “underlined the excellent cooperation between the Italian and Bavarian authorities.”

Museums & HeritageGermanyArt theft
Share
Subscribe to The Art Newspaper’s digital newsletter for your daily digest of essential news, views and analysis from the international art world delivered directly to your inbox.
Newsletter sign-up
Information
About
Contact
Cookie policy
Data protection
Privacy policy
Frequently Asked Questions
Subscription T&Cs
Terms and conditions
Advertise
Sister Papers
Sponsorship policy
Follow us
Instagram
Bluesky
LinkedIn
Facebook
TikTok
YouTube
© The Art Newspaper

Related content

Museums & Heritagenews
17 May 2023

Berlin museums to look into origins of archaeological collections

Research could lead to restitutions if artefact were found to have been excavated or exported illegally

Catherine Hickley
Museum theftnews
20 July 2023

Suspects arrested in theft of gold coins from German museum

The trove stolen from the Kelten Römer Museum near Munich was the biggest Celtic gold find of the 20th century

Catherine Hickley
Museums & Heritagenews
2 June 2023

German museums hold 40,000 objects from former colony Cameroon, study finds

Cameroon has set up a restitutions committee to work with the museums

Catherine Hickley
Francenews
11 October 2023

Germany and France set up joint provenance research fund focussed on Africa

A pilot project will begin operating in February 2024

Catherine Hickley