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Sunday, March 20, 2022

Fresco fragment from Pompeii reopens row over ‘looted’ artefacts

Expert says the rare piece in the Getty Museum in Los Angeles is linked to a dealer accused of trafficking antiquities A leading expert on looted antiquities is calling for the J Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles to return a Roman fresco fragment to Italy, claiming he has evidence that links the piece to a notorious dealer. Prof Christos Tsirogiannis has a photograph of the same fresco fragment from the archive of Robert Hecht who died in 2012, having faced accusations that he trafficked in illicit artefacts. These artefacts included a 2,500-year-old Greek vase that he sold in 1972 for a then record $1m to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and which was subsequently returned to Italy in 2008. Continue reading...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.theguardian.com