Monday, 17 August 2015

Becchina and a Peucetian clay stamnos

Source: MiBACT
I have been reflecting on some of the objects returned to Italy in May 2015. One of the objects in the press photograph was a Peucetian clay stamnos that I had noted before, The Italian press release described it as follows:
Qualche tempo fa, la Sezione Elaborazione Dati del Comando CC TPC individuava queste straordinarie opere d’arte, in vendita all’asta Christie’s New York del 7.12.2011, tra quelle presenti nel c.d. Archivio BECCHINA. 
Gli ulteriori accertamenti investigativi condotti dal Reparto Operativo consentivano di accertare che tutti i beni erano riconducibili a scavi clandestini avvenuti negli anni 70-80 in Puglia. Dopo lo scavo, i beni erano giunti nelle disponibilità del BECCHINA. 
Le informazioni investigative, che confermavano le false attestazioni di provenienza ed origine presenti nel catalogo Christie’s così come fornite dal consegnatario e proprietario dei beni, consentiva all’ICE di sequestrare i beni che, in seguito alla confisca, venivano restituiti all’Italia. 
The identification had been made by Glasgow University researcher Dr Christos Tsirogiannis when it surfaced at Christie's New York in December 2011 (lot 154). As I noted at the time, the stamnos surfaced through Sotheby's New York in 1995.

It would be interesting to learn who consigned the piece to Sotheby's. Are there related pieces from the same source?

Note that it has taken 20 years for the partial collecting history to emerge. Will that be the same for material coming out of the present conflicts in the Middle East?

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