Fresco fragment from Pompeii reopens row over ‘looted’ artefacts

Expert says the rare piece in the Getty Museum in Los Angeles is linked to a dealer accused of trafficking antiquities

A leading expert on looted antiquities is calling for the J Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles to return a Roman fresco fragment to Italy, claiming he has evidence that links the piece to a notorious dealer.

Prof Christos Tsirogiannis has a photograph of the same fresco fragment from the archive of Robert Hecht who died in 2012, having faced accusations that he trafficked in illicit artefacts. These artefacts included a 2,500-year-old Greek vase that he sold in 1972 for a then record $1m to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and which was subsequently returned to Italy in 2008.

The fresco fragment bears a beautiful depiction of a young woman looking out from a balcony. Wearing a loose-fitting tunic, she is sipping from a shallow cup held in her right hand. A photograph of it was among material, including antiquities still covered in soil, seized by police from Hecht in 2001.

The fresco fragment had been donated to the Getty in 1996 by a private collector who had bought it from one of Hecht’s intermediaries in 1987.

Tsirogiannis, a former senior field archaeologist at the University of Cambridge, is now associate professor at the Institute of Advanced Studies at the University of Aarhus in Denmark. He believes this fragment could well have come from Pompeii and he has alerted the district attorney’s office in New York.

He said: “It’s a beautiful, rare depiction that comes from the area of Vesuvius, probably from one of the villas covered by ash following the eruption. The museum has substantial evidence that connects it to known traffickers. Dozens of antiquities from the same private collection have already been returned by the Getty to Italy. This is another case.”

In 2000, Lord Renfrew, the leading Cambridge archaeologist, singled out the fragment as an antiquity “of unknown provenance” and questioned its acquisition by the private collector.

Last week, he too called for the Getty to return it to Italy. He told the Observer: “One can presume it to be looted when it really has no respectable provenance. You need a provenance going back to the beginning of the century to be of any value.

“So I would say, it’s clearly an example of a looted antiquity. There are various places that such a wall painting can come from, but Pompeii is certainly one possibility.”

Looted antiquities are a particularly sensitive subject for the museum, which was founded by American industrialist John Paul Getty. Its former curator of antiquities, Marion True, was indicted in 2005 – with Hecht – in Italy for being part of a stolen-art ring, although all charges were dropped because the limitation period had expired.

Tsirogiannis’s research has focused on antiquities and trafficking networks and law enforcement authorities gave him official access in the early 2000s to tens of thousands of images and other archival material seized in police raids from individuals involved in the illicit trade.

Over 15 years, he has identified about 1,580 looted artefacts within auction houses, commercial galleries, private collections and museums. He alerts police authorities and governments, playing a significant role in securing the repatriation of many antiquities.

He identified an ancient Greek bronze horse, which Sotheby’s New York had planned to sell in 2018 until he notified the authorities of its links to the disgraced British antiquities dealer Robin Symes. In 2020, Sotheby’s lost its legal challenge and Greece’s culture minister hailed the court’s ruling as a significant victory for countries fighting to reclaim antiquities.

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Having linked a number of antiquities to Hecht, including two large vases that were repatriated to Italy in 2012, he said that the latest example is a Roman helmet that Christie’s New York will offer on 12 April for an estimated $600,000. He said he has similar photographic evidence showing that it too had come through Hecht’s hands.

A Getty spokesperson said: “Getty continually researches the background and provenance of items within its collection and considers new evidence when it is presented. We have a longstanding policy of returning objects to their country of origin or discovery when the research indicates it is warranted.” Christie’s declined to comment.