New York has returned looted artifacts worth $14million to Italy after investigators seized them – including dozens of relics recovered from billionaire Michael Steinhardt’s collection.
Among the artifacts returned to Italy was a fresco depicting a child Hercules strangling a snake and three fresco paintings stolen from Paestum, an ancient Greek city in southern Italy, and dating back to the fourth century B.C.
The items, which were handed to Italian officials in New York on Wednesday, will be housed in the new Museum of Rescued Art in Rome.
Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg Jr., said: ‘These artifacts deserve a place in their homeland, where the people of Italy can jointly appreciate the marvels of their country’s past.
‘There are far too many important cultural artifacts being illegally looted and trafficked across the globe.’
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office seized 180 items from Steinhardt, 81, in a landmark deal announced in December which allowed the billionaire to avoid prosecution over the looted collection.
He owned relics included a stag’s head drinking vessel from Greece dating from 400 BC worth $3.5 million, and three ‘Death Masks’ believed to be more than 8,000 years old which were crafted in the Judean foothills and worth $650,000.
Since the Manhattan District Attorney’s office announced the agreement in December, US authorities have returned Steinhardt’s plundered artifacts to Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, Libya, Iraq, Jordan and now Italy.
As part of the December deal, Steinhardt, who bought some of his items from dealer Robert Hecht, who has been accused of illegal trafficking, agreed to a lifetime ban on acquiring antiquities.
