[MSN] Italians seek return of chariot from U.S.

[Museum Security Network Mailing list]

Italians seek return of chariot from U.S.

ROME April 20 (UPI) -- About 100 residents of Monteleone, Italy, 
protested in Rome Friday, demanding the return of an ancient chariot 
that is on display in a U.S. museum.

"It's us, it's us, we're the owners of the chariot," they chanted 
outside the cultural ministry, as the Etruscan chariot was displayed at 
the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Italian new agency ANSA 
reported Friday.

The museum said it owned the chariot for 100 years.

Monteleone Mayor Nando Durastanti tried unsuccessfully to meet with 
Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli. He has enlisted the help of 
Hamilton, N.J., Mayor Glen Gilmore, who wrote a letter to New Jersey's 
two Democratic U.S. Senators, Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez.

Adriana Emiliozzi of the Italian National Research Council, who worked 
on the chariot for the museum, said restorers at first thought the 
chariot was a provincial model but realized later "it was an absolute 
masterpiece," Emiliozzi said.

The chariot, about 2,600 years old, has a controversial past. It was 
unearthed in 1902 by a local farmer, sold for two cows, and allegedly 
dismantled and smuggled out of Italy.

The villagers Monday plan to present a book, "La Biga Rapita," at nearby 
Prugia. Translation: "The Stolen Chariot."

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