For the International Day against the Illicit Trafficking in Cultural Property (14th of November), archaeologists and representatives of law enforcement agencies and institutions retraced the history of the recovery of masterpieces displayed to the public for the first time in the Museum of Etruscan and Italic Antiquities of Sapienza.
Some of the Etruscan artefacts presented during the event were on display for the first time, within the exhibition Caere. Storia di dispersioni e di recuperi.
Recovered treasures
Among the exhibits presented is a large goblet krater with red figures, twin of the Sarpedon Krater, literally "signed" by Euphronios, one of the greatest Greek artists of the late 6th century B.C. The work depicts a fight scene between Heracles and Kynos, embellished by the presence of the names of both the ceramographer and the protagonists represented.
The krater was returned from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and has now been entrusted to Sapienza by the Soprintendenza Archeologia belle arti e paesaggio for the province of Viterbo and Southern Etruria.
A commitment to protecting heritage
United by their commitment to the protection and recovery of dispersed archaeological heritage, the authorities got together, after the public event, in a meeting organized by Sapienza Universita di Romà and attended by the Rector Antonella Polimeni.