The Foundation is chaired by Hermann Parzinger and the objects are currently exhibited at the Altes Museum in the collection section of classical antiquities. Thus a precious funerary object of Appula origin returns to Italy, consisting of 14 vases and ten decorated plates and a fragment of fresco from a villa in Boscoreale.
This corpus of works was included in the list of assets stolen by the well-known art trafficker Giacomo Medici, convicted in 2009 for illicit trafficking of cultural goods. According to investigations, it was first part of the Cramer Collection (Swiss family) which was later sold by Christopher Leon (dealer) to the Altes Museum for 3 million marks in 1984.
On 21 of the 25 exhibits, the competent judicial authorities (the Public Prosecutor's Offices of Rome and Foggia, the latter represented at the ceremony by the Deputy Public Prosecutor Rosa Pensa) have opened legal proceedings with confiscation measures, following investigations by the Carabinieri for the Protection of Cultural Heritage (present in Berlin with the deputy commander Col. Mario Metfogo). So far, however, the German judicial authority has refused to execute the decrees issued by the Rome prosecutor's office for failure to respect the Altes Museum's right to defense, not having been given the opportunity to participate in the hearing which determined the confiscation decree.
The repayment agreement
Given the desire of the Prussian Museum Foundation to return the finds, a collaboration agreement was also negotiated which, on the model of agreements signed with other foreign museums, provides, in exchange for the restitution, a loan for four years (renewable once) of some finds at the German museum.
Present at the ceremony were the Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano, of the German Minister of Culture, Claudia Roth, and of the Italian Ambassador in Berlin, Armando Varricchio
"These are archaeological finds that experts consider to be of great importance. We conducted intense diplomatic work to bring them back to Italy. I thank the German government for respecting the rules. We will continue to work to bring back to our homeland what has illicitly ended up abroad", stated Minister Sangiuliano.
For Minister Roth"This repatriation is a clear example of the effectiveness of the protection of cultural heritage in Germany and Europe. What today's repatriation highlights is the profound meaning of protection, that is, identifying and protecting cultural assets that come from looting, robberies, smuggling and illegal excavations. Equally important is the close cooperation between Germany and Italy in this field: so far no other country has received as many returns of illegally traded cultural goods as Italy".
"The signing of the agreement with the SPZ is an example for cultural diplomacy and demonstrated how the cooperative work of the institutions of both countries was necessary for the protection and valorization of our cultural heritage", added the Secretary General of the Ministry of Culture, Mario Turetta, signatory of the agreement for the Dicastery.
