Italy art police recover looted Etruscan treasures

The recovered Etruscan artefacts, looted by tomb raiders in Città della Pieve, date to the third century BC.

Italian art police have seized a significant collection of Etruscan artefacts, worth at least €8 million, that were looted from an ancient burial site in the central Umbria region of Italy.

The perfectly preserved items, which date to the third century BC, were recovered thanks to the efforts of the Carabinieri TPC art squad in an investigation that lasted several months.The looted artefacts – found in Città della Pieve, about 150 km north of Rome – were displayed during a news conference at the TPC headquarters in Rome on Tuesday.

 The precious items include eight finely decorated urns and two sarcophagi – one of which contains the skeleton of a woman in her 40s – as well as bronze mirrors, a bone comb and balsamarium bottle still containing traces of a perfume used in antiquity.The Etruscan civilisation flourished in central Italy between the 8th and 3rd century BC before being gradually assimilated by the Romans.The police investigation began last April, when officers from the TPC unit came across some photographs of Etruscan funerary urns on the illegal art market.

 Thanks to an accidental discovery by a farmer in Città della Pieve in 2015, the Carabinieri suspected that the finds could have come from the same area.Their investigation led them to the owner of an earthmoving company, who had the means to excavate and move such large and heavy finds, as well as focusing on land adjacent to that of the 2015 discovery.Police employed various tactics in the investigation, including stakeouts, wiretapping and surveillance drones, to monitor the suspects.

Currently two people face charges in relation to theft and receiving stolen cultural goods, and reportedly risk up to 10 years in jail.

Photo ©TPC