From the Italian Press 05/03/09
Scanning the Italian ‘papers’ … A Roman bridge is being excavated in Parma: Giallo in piazza Ghiaia scavi bloccati dal ponte romano? (Repubblica) Plans to build an archaeological park at Tivoli (about time!): BENI CULTURALI: GIRO, A TIVOLI UN GRANDE PARCO ARCHEOLOGICO (Libero) … and plans for Pompeii (I don’t quite understand what’s new in [...]
Another Resort in Bulgaria … Another Bust
Wow … it seems every time a hotel is built or expanded in Bulgaria, there’s some archaeological find. Here’s the latest coverage from Novinite: The regional unit for combating organized crime in Bulgaria’s Burgas have seized a hidden treasure dating back to 3rd century BC. The treasure was discovered in October 2008 during the construction [...]
Cleveland Museum of Art Returns
Getting a smattering of coverage this past week was the announcement that the Cleveland Museum of Art would be returning 14 items (13 from the period within our purview) to Italy which were considered to be of dubious origin. In return, the CMoA will be receiving a loan of items of similar value. There don’t [...]
Columnar Crime?
Somewhat strange (to me) item apparently circulating with not enough detail on the AP Wire … from PR Inside: Police in northern Greece say they have seized six sections of ancient marble columns from a junkyard and arrested the owners for antiquity smuggling. The sections of the 2,300-year-old columns are up to 13 feet (4 [...]
From the Italian Press
Assorted items of interest which may or may not make it to the English-reading press: A pair of 5th/4th century B.C. burials found during sewer construction in Canosa: Canosa, dalla terra un tesoro Due tombe del IVsec. A.C. (Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno) From the same period come similar finds from Castellaneta; the site is clearly much [...]
Another Return for the Getty
This one’s been bursting all over the newswires for the past few hours … plenty of coverage, but the incipit to the LA Times version (plus their photo) seems to be most of the info that’s circulating now: In its latest effort to return wayward ancient artworks to their rightful owners, the J. Paul Getty Museum [...]
‘Jesus Ossuary’ Trial Update
In case you were wondering … the trial of all those folks associated with the so-called ‘Jesus Ossuary’ has ‘stalled’ (for want of a better term, I suppose). The Jerusalem Post has a lengthy piece … here’s the interesting bits: According to the Antiquities Authority, Deutsch and Golan conspired to forge an ancient decanter, several [...]
Tombaroli in Decline?
As I try to cleanup the backlog caused by assorted technical things over the past couple of weeks, I have come across an item I misfiled which I find to be very interesting. The Sunday Herald (February 27, 2009) reports on the ‘sudden’ (for want of a better term) decline in tombaroli. It begins thusly: [...]
Roman Fort at Trimammium Plundered?
The Sofia Echo reports: The unexplored Roman fortress of Trimammium near the village of Mechka in Rousse has been ravished by treasure-hunters, Dnevnik daily reported on February 12 2009, quoting local archaeologists who informed police.[...] During his presentation in Rousse, Vurbanov revealed photos showing more than 30 shallow holes dotting the site, obviously dug with [...]
Another Bust in Greece
Various news venues are reporting the arrest of a man near Thessaloniki (the actual town varies depending on the report) who was found with a pile of items … as described by the IHT: The confiscated antiquities included more than 1,500 silver and copper coins dating from the 4th century B.C. to the 3rd century [...]
Croesus Theft an Inside Job
A few years ago a number of items from the so-called treasures of King Croesus were purloined from a museum in Turkey and replaced with fakes. Today we read that the former museum director and a handful of his colleagues have been found guilty of the theft. Thieves of Croesus riches jailed (BBC) 10 jailed [...]
Denmark v Italy
The Copenhagen Post relates what appears to be the next repatriation case … here’s the salient bit: The issue first came to light in 2006 when Italy requested the return of six Etruscan pieces from the museum in connection with an international operation against an illegal art dealing syndicate. But for more than two years [...]
Museum Case Resumes in Italy
I was wondering about this one a couple of days ago … there’s a brief AP report just hitting the ewaves that the trial of Marion True and Robert Hecht has resumed in Rome. Nothing much new, yet, but the focus appears to be on Robert Hecht right now. Trial Resumes for Former Curator (New [...]
