Rome museum displays antiquities repatriated from US and Europe.
Italy has reopened a museum in Rome that showcases ancient artefacts looted from Italian archaeological sites and trafficked abroad before being rescued by art police.
Established in 2022 before closing for several years, the Museo dell’Arte Salvata (Museum of Rescued Art) reopened on Thursday in the Octagonal Hall at the Baths of Diocletian, part of the National Roman Museum network.
The museum displays more than 100 valuable archaeological finds, dating from the ninth century BC to the third century AD, recovered by Italy’s art police and repatriated from the US and several European countries over the last three years.
The exhibited artefacts had been trafficked illegally out of Italy, making their illicit way into private collections, museums and auction houses, before being tracked down and seized by the Protection of Cultural Heritage (TPC) unit of the Carabinieri.
The works on display include alabaster Etruscan female faces from cinerary urns from Città della Pieve, an antefix of the Potnia-Theron of Mistress of Animals from the Hellenistic sanctuary of Ardea near Rome; Greek and Etruscan bronze weapons; Etruscan and Roman bronze and silver pottery; Magna Graecia terracotta; and Etruscan gold jewellery, marble theatre masks and votive bronzes.
Museo dell’Arte Salvata
The museum says that a section of the New Recoveries exhibition is dedicated to “spontaneous deliveries” of objects returned by citizens aware of the historical and legal value of what they possess, “demonstrating the growing sensitivity towards the protection of common heritage”.
Alfonsina Russo, head of the department for the promotion of cultural heritage and a curator of the exhibition, said: “These are works rescued from oblivion. Here their voice can be heard again”.
General Francesco Gargano, commander of the Carabinieri’s TPC, cited by Italian news agency ANSA, said that over the past 55 years the unit has recovered “three million works of art but in our database there are still 1.3 million to be found, today also with the help of artificial intelligence”.
The works on display will eventually be placed in public museums in the (sometimes presumed) areas of origin, ANSA reports.
Admission to the Museum of Salvaged Art, located just off Piazza della Repubblica, will be free until 31 August after which access will be included in the National Roman Museum ticket.
