On Tuesday, May 28, ancient treasures, including mosaics stolen by tomb raiders, antique bronze statues, and a silver coin trafficking through Britain, were returned to Italy.
Over the past few years, investigators from Homeland Security Investigations and a specialized Carabinieri squad have worked together to seize the stolen treasures from museums, collectors, and private residences in the United States.
The items span the 9th century BC to the 2nd century AD and amount to just one year's worth of stolen and trafficked art collected by Manhattan prosecutor Col. Matthew Bogdanos' team and returned to Italy.
The returned works and the 60 items repatriated last year are valued at over $80 million. Bogdanos said the $80 million worth of items does not include the additional 100 items his team recently found in the US.
According to Gen. D. Francesco Gargaro, commander of the Carabinieri for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, one of the main reasons why recovering and returning stolen antiquities is so difficult is because the authorities often do not know what they are searching for.
Gargaro said that when artifacts are taken from clandestine graves, they have never been cataloged. He further explained that their historical context was stolen in addition to the items themselves, robbing archaeologists of valuable information.
He continued that most recent items returned to Italy were excavated of clandestine excavations or stolen from churches, museums, and private individuals.
A cuirass and two bronze heads from the 4th-3rd century BC that were seized from a New York gallery owner were among the items on Tuesday.
Furthermore, an Umbrian bronze statue depicting a warrior stolen from an Italian museum in 1962 was also found in a well-known American museum.
Italy's Carabinieri Cultural Heritage Protection Unit uses artificial intelligence to look for stolen cultural items under a new program called "Stolen Works Of Art Detection System" (SWOADS).
The program looks for stolen items by searching the web and social media for photos.
Italy's culture ministry undersecretary Gianmarco Mazzi said, "The return to Italy of cultural assets of such importance, both for their numerical consistency and historical-artistic value, is another significant achievement."
