Crustumerium material

I am aware of an impasto amphora in a North American university collection that appears to come from Crustumerium and was handled by Edoardo Almagià. I presume that curators are checking their items for material from these sources.

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New Returns to Italy Announced: Some Linked to Edoardo Almagià

Source: Manhattan DA

It was announced today that 142 antiquities will be returning to Italy (Press Release, "D.A. Bragg Returns 142 Antiquities Valued at Nearly $14 Million to the People of Italy", July 20, 2022). The returns consisted of 

"60 were recovered from Royal-Athena Galleries, 48 were recovered from STEINHARDT, and an additional 34 were seized pursuant to other ongoing investigations".

The Steinhardt material included:

Among the items being repatriated today is the Ercolano Fresco, which was seized as part of the investigation into STEINHARDT. Depicting an infant Hercules strangling a snake, the piece dates to 50 C.E. and was looted in 1995 from a villa in Herculaneum, an archaeological site that was buried for millennia under volcanic ash from the fiery eruption of Mount Vesuvius. STEINHARDT purchased the Ercolano in 1995 for $650,000 with no verifiable prior provenance. It is currently valued at $1,000,000.

Other items identified include:

Three fresco paintings dating to the 4th century B.C.E. from Paestum, an ancient Greek city located in southern Italy, which were seized pursuant to an ongoing investigation. These paintings depict scenes of mourning women, and were hacked from the wall of a tomb by looters.

An Archaic pithos (storage jar) dating back to 700 B.C.E. that was seized pursuant to an ongoing investigation into Edoardo ALMAGIÀ, an Italian native and former New York resident.

The press release also acknowledges the following museums and a single gallery:

Indiana University’s Eskenazi Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts-Boston, Royal-Athena Galleries, and the Toledo Museum of Art

One wonders if the Indiana material is linked to Almagià. 

The Boston material includes 9 pots apparently derived from Crustumerium in Latium that was acquired in 1995:

Probably about 1993/1994, illicitly excavated from Crustumerium, Italy and sold to Edoardo Almagià, New York; 1995, sold by Almagià to Jonathan Kagan and Sallie Fried, New York; 1995, year-end gift of Jonathan Kagan and Sallie Fried to the MFA (Accession Date: January 24, 1996); December 16, 2021, deaccessioned by the MFA for transfer to the New York County District Attorney and return to the Republic of Italy.

So far Boston is the only museum that appears to have provided full information.

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Cleveland Museum of Art: material from Latium

Two of the three antiquities returned to Italy from the Cleveland Museum of Art appear to be impasto amphorae with 'spiked handles' of the type that have been found at Crustumerium in Latium. The two pieces were acquired in 1995 (inv. 1995.64–65). 

The third piece is a Near Eastern head pendant (inv. 1994.97). 

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Crustumerium and returns to Italy

It appears that some of the objects that have been returned to Italy from Fordham University may have been removed from the cemeteries around Crustumerium in Latium. The city lies 15 km to the east of Veii in Etruria. Richard de Puma has discussed the production of White on Red pottery from Crustumerium, based on the research of Marina Micozzi. He draws specific parallels ("close similarities to some of the pieces excavated at Crustumerium", p. 99) with several pieces once in the Fordham University collection: for example, two lidded pyxides (inv. 70.038; cat. no. 43; 7.040; cat. no. 44). He then turns to the olla with four attached bowls: there are two examples that were once in Fordham, one decorated in the white on red style (inv. 2007.1.3–4 [2.002–003]; cat. nos. 45–46). De Puma notes that "details of fabric, style, and technique ... suggest that the place of manufacture may have been Crustumerium" (under no. 46). All four are reported to have been purchased from Harmer Rooke Numismatics or Harmer Rooke Numismatists. In addition, de Puma notes that the two pieces with the four attached bowls were reported by the vendor to have been found together "at the border of Etruscan, Faliscan and Latin territories"; this locality suggests Crustumerium.

The pyxides and one olla are placed in "northern Latium" by de Puma who wrote the catalogue entries for Fordham. 

The Fordham return is reported to be linked to material associated with Edoardo Almagià [Manhattan DA press release]

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