Dallas museum
returns
stolen antiquities to Italy
The Dallas Museum of Art has agreed to return
six antiquities that were
looted illegally from Italy.
 |
Two Etruscan shields with the head of Acheloos, 6th Century BC
[Credit: Dallas Museum of Art]
|
In exchange,
Italy is loaning the Dallas museum treasures from the Spina necropolis housed at the Ferrara archaeological museum.
 |
Volute Krater, Apulia, 4th Century BC
[Credit: Dallas Museum of Art]
|
Italy's culture ministry announced the agreement Thursday. The objects being returned include Etruscan-era kraters - vases - and a pair of bronze shields.
 |
A Red Figure krater, Apulia, 4th Century BC
[Credit: Dallas Museum of Art]
|
The ministry's press office said that unlike past negotiations with U.S. museums, which involved threatened or real legal action to recover looted antiquities, Dallas museum director Maxwell Anderson spontaneously offered to return the items after the museum couldn't determine their provenance.
 |
Etruscan head of an Antefix, c.500 BC
[Credit: Dallas Museum of Art]
|
Italy launched an aggressive campaign a decade ago to retrieve looted artifacts. Its most famous recovery is the
Euphronios Krater from New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Source: The Associated Press [October 31, 2013]
