[CPProt.net] Italian police bust tour guide from Austria for tomb raiding

[MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)]

Italian police bust tour guide from Austria for tomb raiding

2005-10-09 / Reuters / 

Italian police said on Friday they had smashed an international antiquities
smuggling ring led by an 82-year-old Austrian tour guide nicknamed Mozart.

In a cross-border operation, police said they had arrested five Italian tomb
raiders and traced some 3,000 archaeological treasures to the Austrian's
home, mostly originating from sites near Rome.

More than 600 other artefacts were found in Italy in the possession of tomb
raiders the Austrian employed, they said.

"It is a great find and a signal to the whole world that Italy will no
longer tolerate looting and theft of our art," Rome's archaeology
superintendent, Angelo Bottini, said.

Police said the Austrian, who was affectionately called Mozart by his
Italian associates, had not been arrested because of his age.

The Italians did not give his real name, but Austrian media quoted a man
they named as Rupert Aichmeir as denying any wrongdoing.

"What sort of cultural assets? They are only shards," Aichmeir was quoted as
saying by the Web site of Austrian state broadcaster ORF.

"They are talking about 1,000 pieces. That's what I've bought at fairs over
40 years ... If I had stolen the exhibits I wouldn't have been so stupid as
to show them publicly and give lectures - even with video clips - on my work
in Italy."

Italian police said they uncovered gold, silver, ceramics, marbles, bronzes
and large Etruscan vases in their swoop on "Mozart's" home near the town of
Linz.

A video of the raid showed police digging up a vegetable patch to find
dozens of vases wrapped in black bin bags.

Italy believes it loses thousands of euros worth of art treasures every year
through looting and it is looking to crack down on the illicit trade.
Investigators believe the looting stretches to the highest levels of the art
world.

In July, the former curator of the Los Angeles J. Paul Getty Museum, Marion
True, went on trial in Rome accused of receiving stolen artefacts. True has
denied the accusations.

True's trial, whose opening session she did not attend, is being closely
watched by the international art community and is due to continue in
November.

Police said they tracked "Mozart" after a tipoff from Rome archaeologists.
They believe he carried off thousands of Italian artefacts over many years
by using his tour guide credentials to gain access to protected sites.

Looting focused on Etruscan tombs at the Crustumerium site on Rome's
outskirts but stolen artefacts from Sicily and the southern Puglia region
had also been discovered, police said.

"Many of the clients on the tour must have known what they were doing was
illegal," police Commander Ferdinando Musella told Reuters.