Met To Italy: Where’s The Proof?

Italian officials have little concrete evidence that objects in the Metropolitan Museum are stolen. “For six of the seven pots, Italian evidence doesn’t tie them to any clandestine digs or tomb robbers, according to a judge’s conviction of Roman art dealer Giacomo Medici, who was charged with smuggling the pots. Italian negotiators are using evidence from his trial in their negotiations with the Met. For the seventh vase, a 2,500-year-old pot painted by the artist Euphronios, an allegedly incriminating journal found in an American art dealer’s Paris apartment makes no mention of the object ever being in Italy.”