Italy Recovers Stolen Historical Artifacts from America

Italy has announced that it "has recovered 266 historical artifacts valued at tens of millions of euros from the United States, which were brought and sold by an international network of antiquities traffickers in the late 1990s." A specialized unit of the Italian Carabinieri police stated in a release on Friday that "the artifacts returned thanks to cooperation between the judicial authorities in Italy and the United States." It pointed out that "authorities found 145 artifacts during bankruptcy proceedings against the British antiquities dealer Robin Symes." The statement clarified that "65 other artifacts belong to the Menil Collection museum in Houston, Texas, which decided to return them to Italy after police confirmed they were excavated following illegal digs at archaeological sites in Italy prior to being exported illegally." The artifacts, the oldest of which dates back to the 9th century BC, include works from the Etruscan civilization and the Roman Empire, as well as Magna Graecia (Southern Italy).