Italian Criminal Charges Possible in Connection with Antiquities Recovery from Private Collector; Accord Reached with Princeton Museum

Today's New York press conference at the Italian Cultural Institute, at which Italian Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli (fourth from left, above), announced recoveries of objects illegally removed from Italy, was more interesting for what I learned afterwards in one-on-one, on-the-record discussions with Italian and U.S. investigators than for what was officially announced to the largely Italian press corps in attendance.

Robert Stiriti (second from left, above), attaché at the American Embassy in Rome for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), told me that criminal charges "are pending" in Italy (but have not yet been filed) against an American private collector who owned several objects (including the marble sarcophagus of a child) recovered by ICE on Oct. 20 from his New York residence. He would not give further information about the collector, other than to say, "He is not well known." Stiriti said that seven objects came from that collector; images of only six were provided to the press, along with images of five objects recovered from other sources.

Antiquities dealer Jerome Eisenberg, who figured prominently in my most recent post (about the Metropolitan Museum's Etruscan chariot), was also a key player in today's restitution story: Giovanni Nistri (third from left, above), commander of the carabinieri's special unit for cultural patrimony, told me that two of the recovered objects---a 4 1/8-inch-high bronze Etruscan figure of a nude athlete, and a 6 3/8-inch-high bronze Etruscan figure of Nike, had been discovered by Italian investigators on the website of Eisenberg's Royal-Athena Galleries, which voluntarily restituted them when shown evidence of their theft from an Italian museum and an archeological site, respectively. Nistri explicitly stated that Eisenberg had had no prior knowledge of the works' problematic histories and had cooperated in their restitution.

Eisenberg told me that he had sold the bronzes in the 1980s to collector John Kluge, who put them up for auction at Christie's on June 8, 2004. Eisenberg repurchased them there (for $6,573 and $9,560, respectively). He said that he had also voluntarity returned other pieces, when he learned that they had been illegally taken from Italy.

Rutelli also announced that an agreement had been signed with Princeton in connection with Italy's claim for objects from the university's art museum. He did not announce further details, but did tell me afterwards that the accord involved loans of significant objects to the museum from Italy. Cass Cliatt, Princeton University's media relations manager, would only say: "We are in final negotiations."

Finally, Rutelli enigmatically mentioned that he hopes for additional "good news from our American trip," in connection with negotiations in New York "with other cultural public and private institutions....Cooperation is the golden word"...not to mention the implied threat of legal prosecution.