These two marvels of art conservation are now seen as looted works

Their recovery has been taken as a significant testament to the skill of art conservators who identified uneven, ancient pottery fragments and used them to reconstruct the treasures of antiquity.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art reconstructed two classical Greek drinking cups from random shards assembled in small batches from various sources over a period of more than 15 years, beginning in 1978.

But fragments of both cups, it turns out, were gifted or sold to the museum by nearly the same people—three of whom were later linked to the sale of looted antiquities.

Investigators from the Manhattan district attorney's office seized one of the cups two years ago, claiming it was looted, valued at $1.2 million, and returned it to Italy.

Now the Met has admitted that last year, without fanfare, it returned the second cup or cylix, agreeing that it too was looted.

A spokeswoman for the Met, Ann Bayliss, said investigators had “provided new information to the Met which makes it clear that the work should be returned.”

Unlike in the case of the first kylix, the Met said that while it transferred title to the second one to Italy, officials there agreed that the museum could keep the cup on display.

“This is a very positive example of a recovery leading to a loan agreement,” Ms Bayliss said.

Investigators and some experts say the cups depict something much darker. They suggest that the frequent arrival of pottery that matches others already in museums is not surprising. Rather, they say, it was part of a tactic of looting and smuggling by dealers so that the government would crack down on looting. Fragments became easier to hide than intact, illegal antiquities.

David Gill, an archaeologist and fellow at the Center for Heritage at the University of Kent in England, said importing looted artefacts became particularly difficult after the 1970s, when countries began ratifying UNESCO treaties to curb the trade in illegal artefacts.

Although the treaty regulates the conduct of nations, not institutions, museums have begun to adopt guidelines that align with its principles, for example, to avoid artefacts lacking documented evidence that they left their countries of origin before 1970 or were legally exported after 1970. .

“They said, 'We can't handle these things,'” Gill said. “So there were new ways to bypass the system.”

Both cups are believed to have been made by two master craftsmen of ancient Greek Attic ceramics: Hieron, the potter, and Macron, the painter. Both cups date to about 490 BC.

The Greeks made kylix-like cups for use in symposia, sometimes raucous drinking parties that featured music, poetry, and debate. Attic pottery was coveted by the Etruscans, whose civilization dominated central Italy centuries before the rise of the Roman Republic. Thousands of Greek artefacts such as cups became objects of trade and were found in Etruscan tombs in Italy, many of which were targets of looters.

The pieces of the kylix returned to Italy in 2022 reached Mette over a period of 16 years, either as gifts or purchased acquisitions, from four sellers or donors: two Swiss dealers; Part of a Los Angeles gallery owned by American dealer Robert Hecht; and a man who for decades served as its own chief curator of Greek and Roman antiquities, Dietrich von Bothmer.

The pieces used to recreate the second cup, which depicts a victorious athlete being crowned by an elderly man in a gymnasium, were provided to the museum by the same four sellers and donors. But the 44 volumes also included one sold to the museum by Hecht's wife, Elisabeth.

Robert Hecht was a distinguished antiquarian who supplied artifacts to many museums and collectors. Authorities charged him with antiquities smuggling several times, but he was never convicted. Just a few years before his gallery sold the piece to the Met, Hecht sold the museum an ancient Greek vase, a sixth-century BC red-figure krater by the Greek artist Euphronios, for $1 million — a large price in 1972 — to von Bothmer and then-Met director Thomas The acquisition was arranged by Hoving.

Almost immediately, Italian investigators said the crater had been looted and publicly demanded its return. But the Met resisted those requests for years until 2006, when it signed a sweeping agreement with Italy that transferred title to the krater and other looted antiquities to Italy but allowed the krater and some other artifacts to remain at the museum on loan. (The Met finally returned the crater in 2008.)

Museum and Italian officials said the agreement allowing the kylix to remain on display at the Met was structured as an addendum to a 2006 agreement. Kylix is ​​expected to remain on loan for at least four years, although the loan period may be extended. The Met said the addition also covered a group of amber and vase fragments. They were also repatriated to Italy with the kylix in December.

The Carabinieri TPC, a branch of the Italian police responsible for combating art and antiquities crime, said the kylix was claimed “on the basis of evidence of its illegal origin from Italy.”

“The Met has recognized the archaeological find as belonging to the Italian state, displaying it with inscriptions belonging to us and remaining on loan,” Carabinieri official Monica Satta said in an email.

Loan agreements have become a tool for museums to retain important items at a time when many countries are seeking to reclaim their cultural heritage. In 2022, the Met announced a system to display the world's most significant privately assembled collection of Cycladic antiquities. Businessman and philanthropist Leonard N. The works, assembled by Stern, will be exhibited at the Met for at least 10 years, with an acknowledgment that they belong to Greece.

The latest repatriation follows the Met's announcement last year of a major new research effort to investigate its intention to return holdings that it determined had a history of problematic provenance.

In recent years, the museum has faced increasing scrutiny from law enforcement officials, academics and the media over the extent to which its collection includes looted artifacts. As part of its expanded efforts, earlier this year it appointed former Sotheby's executive, Lucian Simmons, to a newly created position of head of provenance research.

In the case of the kylix, the Met said it was contacted last year by investigators from the District Attorney's Office after a New York Times article noted a similarity between that cup and one recently seized by investigators.

The district attorney's office said in a statement that it is pleased that its efforts have led to an agreement with Italy.

“Our goal,” the statement said, “is to ensure that any antiquities illegally passing through New York are returned to the country where they are rightfully owned.”