Photographic Archives and Antiquities

The September 1995 raid on the Geneva Freeport premises of Giacomo Medici brought to light a major archive of some 4000 photographs. These images, some Polaroids, have been used by the Italian authorities to identify objects that have passed into public and private collections. By my estimate less than 1% of the items identified in the photographs have been returned to Italy.

The objects featured in the Geneva Polaroids are reported to include:

• The marble statue of a Roman youth withdrawn from a London auction in April 2010
• A Corinthian krater seized in New York in 2009
• Several objects from a New York private collection (and here)
• Several pieces from a New York private collection acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum
• An Attic amphora once in New York
• An Attic krater in Minneapolis
• Some Apulian pottery in Berlin

Other major sets of photographs have been seized from a Basel warehouse (approximately 10,000 images) and on the Greek island of Schinoussa. Research on this material will undoubtedly lead to further identifications. A related set of images show objects once handled by the Swiss-based conservator Fritz Bürki.

Other pieces identified by unspecified photographic archives:

• two pots seized in New York in 2009
• Roman items in the Miho Museum, Japan