Hundreds of artifacts illegally looted for a British grave robber and valued at up to £10.3 million have been returned to Italy after a 20-year legal battle.
The oldest of the 821 objects date from the eighth century BC and include an Etruscan three-legged bronze table, Roman marble busts and wall paintings believed to be from the area of Vesuvius.
Disgraced antiques dealer Robin Symes acquired the objects, which are mainly of Italian and Greek origin, after they were illegally excavated before being exported and sold around the world.
They were found nearly 20 years ago in two London warehouses owned by Symes’ company, Robin Symes Ltd, which has since been placed in receivership allowing a deal with liquidators to be made.
Italy’s culture minister has now hailed their repatriation as a success and denounced the “unscrupulous smugglers” who he said had plundered his country’s cultural heritage.
Robin Symes, 84, is a disgraced British art dealer whose collection consisted of looted artifacts from Italy and Greece
An undated fragment of a mural depicting gods and female figures
A rare and well-preserved tripod table in foil bronze, seventh century BC Etruscan production
A polychrome mosaic now returned to Italy has been illegally excavated
Dating from the eighth century BC to the medieval era, the precious objects will now be displayed in Rome in the Castel Sant’Angelo, a fortress and mausoleum for the Roman Emperor Hadrian overlooking the Tiber River.
Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano, who attended the exhibition, said those behind the looting had operated in a “grey zone between legality and illegality” for decades. Telegraph reports.
The items were stolen from sacred sites, including tombs, where the Romans went to pray to their various gods.
Symes, 84, was Britain’s largest art dealer for decades before details of his shady business came to light following a series of dramatic events that shattered his business.
His partner of 30 years, Christo Michaelides, heir to a Greek shipping fortune and a partner in Symes’ £125 million antiquities business, died after falling down a flight of stairs while the couple were on holiday in Umbria in 1999.
After Michaelides’ death, his family claimed they were entitled to half of the antiquities trade – a share worth £43 million.
Italian Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano (second from right), attends a press conference revealing the stolen artifacts with Greek Ambassador to Italy Eleni Sourani, (left) and Carabinieri General Vincenzo Molines
Symes resisted and lost his claim that Michaelides was just an employee, not a partner, and was later declared bankrupt.
He lied about the value of two deals, in one instance testifying that he had sold an Egyptian statue of the Greek god Apollo for £1.1 million when in reality it had been sold to a sheikh for £3.1 million.
He also lied about the number of storage facilities he kept artifacts in, claiming there were only five when there were actually 29, and received a two-year prison sentence for contempt of court.
In 2016, Italian and Swiss authorities raided a warehouse in Geneva Freeport, uncovering a priceless trove of Roman and Etruscan antiquities, including statues and terracotta pots.
Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano, who attended the exhibition, said those behind the looting had operated in a “grey zone between legality and illegality” for decades.
The precious objects will now be displayed in Rome in the Castel Sant’Angelo, a fortress and mausoleum for the Roman Emperor Hadrian overlooking the River Tiber
Archaeologist Sara Neri talks about the archaeological finds of clandestine excavations in Italian territory on display at a press conference in Rome
Now items from London warehouses, including an ornate lead sarcophagus depicting Medusa, necklaces made from Baltic amber and a stone sphinx statue, were repatriated from London on May 19 after years of legal wrangling.
The return of the vast loot of treasures has highlighted the importance of promoting the legal circulation of antiquities through loans and museum exhibitions, Italy’s culture minister said.
‘We must put an end to international illegality in the trade in works of art. Illegality should not be allowed and no margin should be given,” he said.
“The most complex moment was when the liquidators showed their availability (to return the objects), which was a willingness that implied a demonstration of illegality,” said Carabinieri Cmdr. Vincenzo Molinese, who is in charge of the carabinieri unit that protects cultural heritage.
The artifacts were repatriated from London on May 19, after years of legal wrangling
The artifacts returned to Italy the same day Symes and Greece signed an agreement to repatriate other looted items, the carabinieri said.
A further 351 objects, dating from the Neolithic period to the early Byzantine era, from the Symes collection will be returned to Greece.
He described Symes as “a man of a thousand faces” and added that it took “nearly 20 years to achieve this result.”
Eleni Sourani, the Greek ambassador to Italy said: “It gives us great satisfaction when an illegally exported cultural artifact returns to its country of origin.”