{"id":87639,"date":"2022-09-03T04:34:10","date_gmt":"2022-09-03T01:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fye-yemen.net\/?p=87639"},"modified":"2022-09-03T04:34:49","modified_gmt":"2022-09-03T01:34:49","slug":"fbi-returns-2000-year-old-italian-art-that-languished-in-a-los-angeles-storage-facility-for-decades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fye-yemen.net\/?p=87639","title":{"rendered":"FBI Returns 2,000-Year-Old Italian Art That Languished in a Los Angeles Storage Facility for Decades"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York – Free Yemen Eye – from News FBI<\/p>\n

FBI Art Crime Team agents recently returned several pieces of historical artwork back to their rightful owners\u2014the Italian government. This is the first in a two-part series.<\/p>\n

When Special Agent Allen Grove joined the FBI Art Crime Team, he never thought shipping and logistics would be part of the job.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s what it took for the team to return priceless artifacts\u2014ones that may have been lost for as long as 100 years\u2014back to their rightful home in Rome, Italy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought I\u2019d be investigating art crime and repatriating antiquities. But so much of the work behind the scenes is communications, contracts, and getting the right items to the right people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In late 2020, an art attorney reached out to FBI Art Crime Team Special Agent Elizabeth Rivas about an anonymous client who had a mosaic of the mythological figure Medusa. The enormous work had been cut into 16 pieces and stored in individual pallets in a Los Angeles storage facility since the 1980s. Each pallet weighed between 75 and 200 pounds.<\/p>\n

Some of the pallets were termite-infested, but the pieces of the mosaic were largely intact thanks to the climate-controlled facility they\u2019d been kept in.<\/p>\n

The client had no documentation\u2014known in the art world as provenance\u2014so they could not sell the pieces. (Selling art without provenance is the equivalent of trying to sell a car when you don\u2019t have its title.)<\/p>\n

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A piece of an ancient Roman mosaic, in storage for decades, was found and returned to Italy, where it will be restored and displayed for the public.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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The mission for Special Agents Rivas and Grove became discovering<\/span>\u00a0where the mosaic belonged so the FBI could return it.<\/span><\/p>\n

A local art expert said the mosaic was likely of North African or Italian heritage. So Rivas started with the FBI\u2019s liaison in Italy.<\/p>\n

A few months later, the FBI\u2019s Italian counterpart, the Carabinieri, whose art squad frequently works with the FBI\u2019s art crime investigators, confirmed the mosaic was Italian. It had been entered into cultural property records in 1909.<\/p>\n

The mosaic is believed to be about 2,000 years old and is a key part of Rome\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

The only modern record of the mosaic\u2019s existence was a 1959 newspaper ad that appeared to show it for sale in the Los Angeles area.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The next challenge was logistical. The mosaic had to be carefully packed and shipped in such a way that it would arrive undamaged. Luckily, the anonymous individual who had possession of the work agreed to pay for specialized shipping crates.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe worked with the owner and made sure we documented the condition and had everything we needed to ship it back to Italy,\u201d Grove said. \u201cWe then worked with the Italian consulate here in Los Angeles. This is something of great interest to Italy; they came and inspected the mosaic and helped us facilitate the logistics of actually getting it back to Italy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The art arrived safely in April, and experts are now working to clean and restore it so the art can be enjoyed by generations to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mosaic was handcrafted from an age where people put an amazing amount of care and effort into it. It really speaks to the ingenuity and creativity of the time,\u201d Grove said. \u201cIt’s not meant to be in Los Angeles. The mosaic belongs to the people of Rome. It allows us to understand a bit about the history of humans 2,000 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ability to work closely and collaboratively with the Italian government was key to the success of the repatriation, as was the willingness of the art lawyer to reach out to Special Agent Rivas about the piece.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were very happy they contacted us,\u201d Rivas said. \u201cIf they hadn\u2019t, it could\u2019ve been in storage for another hundred years. It\u2019s a successful example of how we can work together to get pieces back to where they belong.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"A
A piece of an ancient Roman mosaic, in storage for decades, was found and returned to Italy, where it will be restored and displayed for the public.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\"The
The art was carefully packed in shipping containers and shipped via diplomatic channels.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The mission for Special Agents Rivas and Grove became discovering where the mosaic belonged so the FBI could return it.<\/p>\n

A local art expert said the mosaic was likely of North African or Italian heritage. So Rivas started with the FBI\u2019s liaison in Italy.<\/p>\n

A few months later, the FBI\u2019s Italian counterpart, the Carabinieri, whose art squad frequently works with the FBI\u2019s art crime investigators, confirmed the mosaic was Italian. It had been entered into cultural property records in 1909.<\/p>\n

The mosaic is believed to be about 2,000 years old and is a key part of Rome\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

The only modern record of the mosaic\u2019s existence was a 1959 newspaper ad that appeared to show it for sale in the Los Angeles area.<\/p>\n

\n

The next challenge was logistical. The mosaic had to be carefully packed and shipped in such a way that it would arrive undamaged. Luckily, the anonymous individual who had possession of the work agreed to pay for specialized shipping crates.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe worked with the owner and made sure we documented the condition and had everything we needed to ship it back to Italy,\u201d Grove said. \u201cWe then worked with the Italian consulate here in Los Angeles. This is something of great interest to Italy; they came and inspected the mosaic and helped us facilitate the logistics of actually getting it back to Italy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The art arrived safely in April, and experts are now working to clean and restore it so the art can be enjoyed by generations to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mosaic was handcrafted from an age where people put an amazing amount of care and effort into it. It really speaks to the ingenuity and creativity of the time,\u201d Grove said. \u201cIt’s not meant to be in Los Angeles. The mosaic belongs to the people of Rome. It allows us to understand a bit about the history of humans 2,000 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ability to work closely and collaboratively with the Italian government was key to the success of the repatriation, as was the willingness of the art lawyer to reach out to Special Agent Rivas about the piece.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were very happy they contacted us,\u201d Rivas said. \u201cIf they hadn\u2019t, it could\u2019ve been in storage for another hundred years. It\u2019s a successful example of how we can work together to get pieces back to where they belong.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New York – Free Yemen Eye – from News FBI FBI Art Crime Team agents recently returned several pieces of historical artwork back to their rightful owners\u2014the Italian government. This is the first in a two-part series. When Special Agent Allen Grove joined the FBI Art Crime Team, he never thought shipping and logistics would …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":87640,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diverse-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fye-yemen.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fye-yemen.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fye-yemen.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fye-yemen.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fye-yemen.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=87639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fye-yemen.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fye-yemen.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/87640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fye-yemen.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=87639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fye-yemen.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=87639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fye-yemen.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=87639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}