The E-Sylum:  Volume 11, Number 4, January 27, 2008, Article 32

ROBERT HECHT UPDATE: ITALY HAILS RETURN OF DISPUTED GREEK VASE

[In December we discussed coin and antiquity dealer Robert
Hecht.  Ted Buttrey wrote: "Robert E. Hecht was -- and still
is, in his 90's -- one of the most important con-men in the
smuggling of classical antiquities, including coins.  It was
he who conned the Metropolitan Museum into paying
$1,000,000 for the famous Euphronius vase, "found in Lebanon".
It was in fact from an Italian grave, and the Museum has now
agreed to return it to Italy.   According to news reports the
vase has now been returned.  -Editor]

The krater will now go on display in the "Nostoi: Recovered
Masterpieces" exhibition inaugurated last month in Rome,
where nearly 70 ancient artifacts -- most of them returned
by the J. Paul Getty Museum after a similar deal -- are
already on show.

"It's a wonderful day for us also. It's a victory for culture
and art," Mark Smith, cultural attache at the U.S. embassy in
Rome, told Reuters at the presentation.

"I think that as a result of these agreements that have
brought these wonderful works back to Italy, American and
Italian museums are going to be able to cooperate more and
more closely in the future. So it really is a victory for
everyone."

The Met had bought the krater from Robert Hecht, an antiquities
dealer who is now on trial in Rome on charges of conspiring to
traffic in looted artifacts. The ex-curator of the Getty museum
is also a defendant in the trial. Both deny any wrongdoing.

To read the complete article, see:
Full Story

 QUIZ ANSWER: ROBERT HECHT AND THE MEDICI CONSPIRACY
 esylum_v10n49a15.html

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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