[MSN] Italians recover looted ancient artifacts; European trafficking ring busted, say Italian police

[MSN]

Italians recover looted ancient artifacts
European trafficking ring busted, say Italian police
Last Updated: Tuesday, February 19, 2008 | 3:59 PM ET 
CBC News 
Police in Italy announced Tuesday the recovery of dozens of looted artifacts, 
including a first century fresco and ancient Greek pottery.

Officers broke up a theft ring that operated out of Italy and France, with 31 
people under investigation, police said.

Italian police worked with local officials in Switzerland, France and Spain to 
retrieve the looted artifacts, many of which were illegally removed decades 
ago.

"These are all objects that had been excavated illegally from underground 
tombs and taken out of the country," Vito Augelli of the Italian police force 
that co-ordinated the operation, told reporters.

Among the recovered archeological treasures are vases from the Apulia region 
dating from fourth century B.C., goblets and other pottery imported from 
ancient Greece by the Etruscans in central Italy, and a fragment of a fresco 
believed to date to the first century A.D. and reportedly removed from a villa 
near Pompeii that served as a home to Emperor Nero's second wife, Poppaea 
Sabina.

During Italy's three-year hunt for those behind the antiquities-trafficking 
ring, a raid on a house in Milan also uncovered 22 paintings forged to look 
like the works of Renoir, Picasso, Modigliani, Monet and Degas, police said in 
a statement.
Italy has been aggressively pursuing antiquities illegally excavated from its 
territories, including high-profile campaigns seeking the return of artifacts 
that landed in prestigious collections of U.S. museums and galleries.

In mid-December, officials opened the exhibit Nostoi: Recovered Masterpieces 
to showcase the fruits of the past few years, with many of the featured 
antiquities items returned by California's J. Paul Getty Museum.

Last weekend, Rome's Quirinal presidential gallery, which is hosting the 
exhibit, announced it would extend the show for an additional month because of 
popular demand. More than 70,000 people have already seen the exhibit, now set 
to close on March 30.

With files from the Associated Press