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| Source: MMA |
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| Tarentine funerary relief Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| Michael C. Carlos Museum inv. 2002.43.56 |
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| Detail of the Sophilos dinos © David Gill |
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| Rhyton formerly in the Cleveland Museum of Art |
The court ruling, issued Monday, came in response to a request from Mr. Hecht’s lawyer to dismiss the case because the statute of limitations on the charges had elapsed in 2011. The lawyer, Alessandro Vannucci, said he had hoped the trial would fully exonerate his client, who has always maintained his innocence, “but it was cut short.” This decision “does not do Bob justice,” he said, using Mr. Hecht’s nickname.The trial may be inconclusive but it has reminded those who collect antiquities that they need to check the documented histories prior to purchase as part of a rigorous due diligence search.
The judges did not express an opinion on culpability or innocence. But they ruled that a series of objects that had been confiscated from Mr. Hecht’s homes should return to their “rightful owner,” which was identified as the Italian state, a decision Mr. Vannucci said he would contest.
The smart money is backing ancient art. Onetime Texas billionaire Nelson Bunker Hunt and his brother William went bust speculating on silver, but their collection of ancient coins, vases and bronzes fetched over $ 23 million at last week's Sotheby's auction -- roughly double the original estimates. Just last year, Canal Capital, a firm controlled by Asher Edelman, a corporate raider and art collector, invested "well over $ 10 million" in inventory for the Merrin Gallery, a leading New York City antiquities dealer. Similarly, Merrill Lynch has launched several limited partnerships that invest in ancient coins. "Antiquities have traditionally been overlooked by the public," says Frank Carr, the portfolio manager for Merrill's Athena funds and chief financial officer at Los Angeles-based Numismatic Fine Arts.The New York magazine gave a little more detail about the sale of Athena Fund II through Hesperia Arts Auction (Andrew Decker, "The Shock of the Old", November 19, 1990). It revealed that the three main figures were Bruce McNall, Jonathan Rosen ("New York collector and real-estate developer"), and Robert E. Hecht ("the éminence grise of New York antiquities collectors"). According to one of the cataloguers for the sale, Jasper Gaunt, the main consignors were Atlantis Antiquities and Athena Fund II. (Atlantis Antiquities is a consignor of some significance for other reasons.) Only today a North American dealer informed me that Robin Symes was the source of much of the material in the Fund.
Merrill Lynch & Company said yesterday that it would pay $20 million to $30 million to settle lawsuits by investors in its ancient-art and rare-coin limited partnerships.Buyers desiring to acquire ancient art that had passed through such a Fund would want to be sure of the collecting histories of the pieces.
Units in the partnerships, which failed, were bought by about 3,500 investors from 1986 to 1990. They will receive the full $1,000 they paid for each unit in the Merrill Lynch Athena Fund I, Athena Fund II and Numismatic Fine Arts World Coin Fund, excluding any distributions they received from the first two funds.
The exhibition is the first in memory at a New York gallery to present a broad view of the Archaic Period, and the first major show presented at Atlantis, which opened 21 months ago. The 70 works in terra cotta, marble, painted clay, bronze, amber and gold were selected by Robert Hecht Jr., an American antiquities dealer based in Paris. Mr. Hecht is a part-owner of the gallery, along with Jonathan Rosen, a real estate developer and collector of ancient art. Andrea Hecht, the dealer's daughter, is the director of the gallery.The gallery then featured in a report on antiquities from Turkey (Geraldine Norman, "Talking Turkey; Who owns the treasures of antiquity? The Turkish government has been fighting American museums for the return of some splendid hoards. But only laws that ensure finders fair compensation will prevent smuggling", The Independent June 13, 1993).
It was the sculpted marble leg of a very grand Hellenistic table, which they found on show at Atlantis Antiquities, a New York gallery that he [sc. Hecht] managed for Jonathan Rosen - a millionaire lawyer who is also a keen collector of antiquities. The sculpture depicts a Scythian slave sharpening the knife with which he intends - on Apollo's instructions - to flay Marsyas, who is strung up on a nearby tree.The sculpture was reported to have been traced back to a farmer Philadelphia in Turkey. The case was resolved when the piece was donated to the American Turkish Society.
The Getty acquired the candelabrum in 1990 from Atlantis Antiquities, a New York gallery, for $60,000, according to evidence in the indictment. But Italian police have traced the object, along with another Getty acquisition named in the indictment, to a private collection in Florence, from which it was stolen. The other object, a bronze tripod, was returned by the Getty to Italy in 1997.Among the more recent returns to Italy that had passed through Atlantis Antiquities was an Apulian loutrophoros attributed to the Metope group that was purchased by the Getty in 1984 (formerly inv. 84.AE.996) as well as an Attic black-figured amphora, attributed to the painter of Berlin 1686, once in the Fleischman collection. Two pieces once in Boston had passed through the same gallery: an Attic black-figured lekythos attributed to the Diosphos painter (formerly inv. 1989.317) and an Apulian amphora attributed to the Darius painter (formerly inv. 1991.437).
Italian prosecutors say that in both cases the objects were smuggled by Giacomo Medici, an Italian dealer based in Geneva, and passed on, via a third party, to Robert Hecht, the owner of Atlantis Antiquities.
Further to my earlier posting here is the detailed list.Princeton will keep seven objects and transfer title to eight. Of the eight objects whose ownership will transfer to Italy, half -- including the psykter and the loutrophorous -- will remain on loan to the museum for four years.I present below a list with the accession numbers (though given the vagueness of the press release it is possible that some errors will have crept in and I have indicated where there is some uncertainty).
1. Apulian red-figured loutrophoros, attributed to the Darius painter. Inv. y1989-29. Museum purchase, anonymous gift.Seven pieces (including a pair of Amazons) will be staying in Princeton and there is no indication as to why they formed part of the discussions and final agreement. The presence of Peter Sharrer's name is interesting. In 2002 the pediment of a second century AD funerary relief was returned from Princeton to Italy ("Ancient Art to go Home", Art in America; "Princeton Return"). This had been purchased from Sharrer in part with funds from Mr and Mrs Leon Levy. This is the piece cited in the latest press release from Princeton indicating the way it has co-operated with the Italian authorities in the past:
2. Etruscan oinochoe. Presumably inv. 1995.149. Museum purchase.
3. Apulian red-figured volute-krater, attributed to the Iliupersis painter. Inv. y1989-40. Museum purchase, anonymous gift.
4. Carian round-mouthed oinochoe, attributed to the Ivy Leaf Group. Inv. y1989-53. Museum purchase, anonymous gift. [Originally as Etruscan.]
5. Attic red-figured psykter, attributed to the Kleophrades painter. Inv. y1989-69. Museum purchase, gift of Peter Jay Sharp through the Peter Jay Sharp Foundation; Lloyd E. Cotsen; John B. Elliott; Jonathan P. Rosen, through the Jonathan Rosen Foundation.
6. Etruscan head of a winged lion. Inv. y1994-58. Museum purchase, John Maclean Magie and Gertrude Magie Fund.
7. Etruscan black-figure skyphos fragment with a sprinting youth. Inv. 1995-64. Gift of Brian T. Aitken.
8. Etruscan terracotta plaque with relief centaur. Presumably inv. 1995.129. Gift of Ali and Hicham Aboutaam.
Most recently, in 2002, the museum voluntarily returned to the Italian government an ancient Roman sculptural relief in its collection, having contacted the Italian authorities after the museum's own research revealed that the work was taken out of Italy without a legal export permit before being acquired by the museum in good faith in 1985.Those antiquities remaining in Princeton are:
9. Corinthian plate with the Ransom of Hector. Inv. y1989-25. Museum purchase, anonymous gift in memory of Isabelle K. Raubitschek and to honor Antony E. RaubitschekBut what will be the next set of antiquities to be the subject of scrutiny by the Italian authorities? The New York Times reports ("Princeton to Return Disputed Art to Italy", October 27, 2007):
10. Attic red-figured cup, attributed to the Brygos Painter. Inv. 1990-2. Museum purchase, anonymous gift in honor of J. Robert Guy.
11. Teano ware vessel in the form of a bird. Inv. y1990-76. Anonymous gift.
12. Pair of Canosan polychrome terracotta charging Amazons. Inv. 1995-110, 1995-111. Museum purchase, Carl Otto von Kienbusch Jr., Memorial Collection Fund
13. Fragment of Attic red-figured lekythos, attributed to the Pan painter. Inv. 1998-223. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Sharrer in honor of Allen Rosenbaum
14. Roman inlaid dagger and sheath (bronze, iron, silver, gold, niello), signed by Honillius. Inv. 1999-148. Museum purchase, Carl Otto von Kienbusch Jr., Memorial Collection Fund
15. Apulian guttus in the form of a drunken Silenus. Inv. 2000-145. Museum purchase, gift of an anonymous Friend.
Negotiations continue with private collectors of antiquities in the United States, as well as museums in Europe.References
Source: Harvard Art Museums The repatriation of the Afrati armour from New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art has implications for other ...
