Robert Hecht: "bought from Medici in good faith"

The Daily Telegraph (London) has published a full obituary of Robert Hecht. The focus of the obituary is the sale of the Sarpedon krater to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art but careful attention is paid to the implications of the Medici Conspiracy. The writer is well aware that there are many more antiquities to identify in European, Japanese and Asian Collections.

Yet welcome as they were, such acts of restitution were no more than gestures. Few doubt that hundreds of objects with dubious pedigrees retain pride of place in renowned collections, and that each year numerous others continue to come to market.

Museums in the UK will perhaps be wise to check to see which pieces in their holdings were derived from this controversial dealer.