>X-Sender: [log in to unmask]
>Date: Fri, 28 Mar 1997 12:23:08 -0700
>To: [log in to unmask]
>From: Brian Kenny <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject:
>
>American Gallery To Forfeit Etruscan Artifacts
>
>NEW YORK (Reuter) - A Manhattan art gallery has been ordered to forfeit a
>seventh century B.C. collection of Etruscan ceremonial potteries that had
>been illegally excavated in Rome, federal prosecutors said Thursday.
>
>U.S. District John John Sprizzo issued the order March 24 under a federal
>law that prohibits trafficking in illegally excavated archeological
>artifacts, the Manhattan U.S. attorney's office said. The artifacts will
>now be returned to Italy, prosecutors said.
>
>The forfeiture complaint charges that the artifacts were looted from a
>state-protected archeological excavation zone in Rome that includes the
>ancient town of Crustumerium and its necropolis, or cemetery.
>
>The artifacts were purchased in 1987 by Antiquarium, Ltd., a Manhattan art
>gallery, from Edoardo Almagia Antiquities and Medieval Works of Art, also
>in Manhattan, for about $24,500. The works were pictured in a catalogue
>issued by Antiquarium in connection with a
>1988 sale of ancient Italian art.
>
>Italian archeological authorities reviewed the catalogue and identified the
>artifacts as having been illegally excavated, the complaint said. In July
>1996, the Public Prosecutors Office for the Court of Rome filed a formal
>request with the United States seeking assistance in locating and
>recovering the Etruscan artifacts.
>
>Prosecutors said Antiquariaum cooperated fully with the government in its
>investigation and there was no evidence it knew the artifacts had been
>illegally excavated. The gallery has also waived its rights to the artifacts.
>
>
Anita Cohen-Williams
Information Specialist
Auto Club of Southern California
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