The Italian government has demanded the return of seven antique objects from the Louvre in Paris. The objects include an amphora and Greek vases from the 4th to 6th centuries BC, believed to have been looted and sold to the Louvre by illegal Italian traders in the 1980s and 1990s, the Paris museum said yesterday.
Portal/Aurelien Morissard
According to a spokeswoman for the Louvre, the Italian Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano, had already delivered a letter to the museum during a visit to France in February, in which it was requested to return it. The newspaper “Le Monde” had already reported on the demand.
investigations initiated
Investigations were initiated into the origin and route of the objects. At the end of the year, the items could be returned to Italy.
Former Louvre director Jean-Luc Martinez was accused last year of conspiring to conceal the origin of archaeological artifacts from Egypt. Investigators suspected that these artifacts were smuggled out of Egypt in the chaos of the “Arab Spring”.
The Louvre in Paris is the largest museum in the world and houses hundreds of thousands of works of art, such as the famous “Mona Lisa”.