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| Image from the Becchina photographic archive courtesy of Christos Tsirogiannis; objects in the Michael C. Carlos Museum |
The Michael C. Carlos Museum has issued details of the five items that will be handed over to Italy (and three of them will remain on loan). Three of the pieces—the Laconian cup, the Attic Band Cup, and the Apulian fishplate—feature in images from the Becchina archive. The implications of the images are clear: "the fact that the Carlos could not determine where the [cup] was before it was with Palladion, there is a high probability the cup was looted".
This makes us turn to two other pieces in the Carlos Museum that feature in the Becchina archive: the Minoan larnax and the Rhodian pithos. The larnax is now only said to have been with Nikolas Koutoulakis, whereas in 2022 it was said to be 'with' Koutoulakis. What is the basis of the evidence? Does the Becchina image and paperwork suggest that it passed to other collections? Note that the larnax later passed to Noriyoshi Horiuchi in Japan.
The history for the pithos that is placed on the Carlos Museum website makes no mention of it passing through the hands of Becchina or Palladion Antike Kunst. Has the history as it has been presented been fabricated? What is the authenticated documentation for the Carlos Museum version of events? Was it supplied by the vendor, Phoenix Ancient Art?
The curatorial staff at the Carlos Museum are clearly wanting to do, and be seen to do, the professional thing by returning objects to their countries of origin when new information comes to light. (Incidentally the pithos and larnax were discussed in the Greek press in June 2007 after they had been identified in the Becchina archive by Christos Tsirogiannis.)
Where does this leave other Becchina material in the Carlos Museum?
I am grateful to Christos Tsirogiannis for sharing the images with me.
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