In this photo released by the Toledo Museum of Art shows a 2,500-year-old water jug. The water jug displayed at the Toledo Museum of Art will be sent to Italy after investigators determined it was looted from that country. The water vessel, or kalpis, has been on display at the Ohio museum since 1982, when it was purchased from an antiquities dealer out of Switzerland. It will be displayed in the museum's Libbey Court until it leaves for Rome, probably in late summer. AP Photo/Toledo Museum of Art.
The Toledo Museum of Art says it will return an ancient water jug to Italy that investigators believe was probably illegally dug up from that country years ago.
The 2,500-year-old water vessel, or kalpis, has been on display at the Ohio museum since 1982, when it was purchased from an antiquities dealer out of Switzerland. It will be displayed in the museum’s Libbey Court until it leaves for Rome, probably in late summer.
“The right thing to do is to return this object,” museum Director Brian Kennedy told The Blade newspaper. “We knew we’d likely lose this. We’ll miss it.”
Italy has pressed an aggressive campaign to win back ancient Roman, Greek and Etruscan vases, bowls, statues and other artifacts prosecutors contend were looted from the country. The campaign was set in motion after a police raid on a Swiss warehouse of an Italian art dealer found a trove of artifacts and photos of antiquities, many of them still covered with dirt from being hastily excavated by antiquities hunters in Italy.
You can read the full article via ArtDaily here.
