Britain Returns 750 Priceless Looted Artefacts To Italy

Britain has returned some 750 historical artefacts worth GBP 10 million that were pillaged from excavation sites by disgraced British trafficker Robin Symes after a 20-year legal battle.

The footage shows some of the artefacts that include ancient Etruscan and Roman art, as well as pieces from the mediaeval period that were found to be in the possession of disgraced British art dealer Robin Symes, 84, who was once one of Britain's leading antiquities dealers.

The treasures, many deemed "priceless", were returned by the United Kingdom to Italy and have been shown at the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome by the Italian authorities in the presence of the Italian Minister of Culture Gennaro Sangiuliano.

The video shows some of the hundreds of works of art and historical artefacts that the Italians say were illegally looted from Italy and they have now been sent back by Britain after an agreement was reached on 11th May.

They had been discovered in storage in two London warehouses nearly 20 years ago and were in the possession of Symes' company, Robin Symes Ltd.

The video shows shelf upon shelf of the artefacts, with a montage of still images showing the repatriation process and the cataloguing of the treasure trove.

Newsflash obtained the footage from the Italian Ministry of Culture on Wednesday, 31st May, along with a statement saying: "Today in Rome, at the National Museum of Castel Sant'Angelo, 750 archaeological finds repatriated from London on 19th May were presented following the investigations by the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, coordinated by the Public Prosecutor's Office at the Court of Rome, aimed at counter international trafficking of cultural goods, which also resulted in an extrajudicial procedure and a civil case, conducted in close collaboration with the Ministry of Culture through the State Attorney General."

The statement continued: "The finds, coming from clandestine excavations on Italian territory, had merged into an English company in liquidation, Symes Ltd, attributable to Robin Symes, an important trafficker of cultural goods.

"The company, which had always opposed the repeated recovery attempts by the Italian Judicial Authority, subject to bankruptcy proceedings in the United Kingdom, was also sued in Italy, through the Attorney General of the State, for the return of the goods or civil compensation for damages."

The Italian authorities said that the items were returned after "complex negotiations" that were closely monitored by the Italian Ministry of Culture, which works closely with the Carabinieri dell'Arte – Italy's art police – and the Italian Embassy in London.

The statement also said: "The set of finds, which can be dated overall to between the 8th century BC and the Middle Ages, and whose value is estimated at EUR 12 million [GBP 10.3 million], offer a cross-section of the many productions of ancient Italy and the islands [...]."

The pieces that have now gone on display at the Castel Sant'Angelo include an Etruscan bronze table and Roman marble busts, as well as a number of bronzes and paintings.

The list of recovered artefacts is seemingly endless and includes clay vases, elements of clothing and jewels including gold, silver, bronze, bone and amber, along with 26 necklaces.

Britain also returned a number of weapons, tools and furnishings, horse harnesses, sarcophagi, funerary urns and ritual objects.

The Italian Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano, is quoted as saying: "The recovery of illicitly stolen cultural heritage is one of the priorities of my programme, protecting it also means preventing our heritage from being plundered by unscrupulous traffickers.

"The joint action between the Ministry and the Carabinieri TPC is a virtuous example of institutional collaboration to be preserved and consolidated also with initiatives such as this one, in which we have worked side by side with Greece. I thank the Arma for the precious daily work carried out in every part of the world."

The statement also said: "The press conference was also attended by Lorenzo d'Ascia, Attorney General of the State and HE Eleni Sourani, Ambassador of Greece in Italy.

"On the same date, a similar agreement was signed by the Greek Ministry of Culture with Symes Ltd for the recovery of other artefacts illegally exported from Greece. A further group of fragments will be studied by Italian and Greek archaeologists to trace their provenance and then return them to their respective states.

"Another 71 finds, currently in the United States, will be recovered in the next few days by the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage."