Angelika Hellweger of Rahman Ravelli details the case and the issues involved.
Princeton University Art Museum has identified 16 artefacts that are linked to an alleged smuggler who graduated from the university.
Edoardo Almagià, who graduated from Princeton in 1973, has been connected to the antiquities that are in the university's collection. The items are reported to originate from around the Mediterranean and include an Etruscan funeral urn, a painted Athenian amphora and six fragments from a Roman lead sarcophagus.
Manhattan prosecutors obtained an arrest warrant for Almagià, who has been charged with conspiracy, taking part in a scheme to defraud, and possessing stolen property owned by Italy. Court papers accuse him of trafficking thousands of artefacts illegally with a total value of tens of millions of dollars. The Manhattan authorities are to ask Interpol to file a red notice, which would allow authorities around the world to detain him.
This is the second report of links between Almagià and the museum's collection. In April last year, five artefacts donated by him were seized by authorities who suspected they may be stolen.
Of the latest 16 items, Almagià sold six of them to the museum between 1987 and 2001. The remaining ten were gifts that had been bequeathed by prominent art world benefactors.
Almagià was first investigated in 1992, due to his links to the well-known tomb robber Pietro Casasanta. He fled the United States in 2006 and was arrested in Italy the same year for illegal trafficking and exports. But the prosecution was dropped as it was beyond the time limit for legal proceedings to be initiated.
Almagià has maintained his innocence and has said that problems have arisen due to changing provenance standards regarding the sale and acquisition of antiquities.
Highest
Italy is still one of the countries with the highest incidence of art theft; partly due to the extensive cultural heritage present in the territory. The pieces stolen in Italy are sold easily in other countries. The United States is estimated to account for 40% of the worldwide market for historic artefacts coming from Italy.
This presents a challenge when it comes to establishing the provenance – the genuine record of ownership - of such items. Provenance may only be able to be established in relation to the most recent owners of artefacts. The location of an item's discovery may also be unknown or vague; especially if it was found decades ago. The situation is not helped by the tendency of galleries and some collectors of artefacts to deal in looted antiquities.
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