BERN: The rare art works, including vases, jewellery, bronze statues and frescoes looted from illegal digs in Italy, were discovered in warehouses in Switzerland.
Police have seized more than 5,000 antiquities worth a record £38 million, after smashing a criminal art network which smuggled classical treasures out of Italy through Switzerland.
The rare art works, including vases, jewellery, bronze statues and frescoes looted from illegal digs in Italy, were discovered in warehouses in Switzerland belonging to an Sicilian art dealer.
Mariano Mossa, head of the specialist art theft branch of the Carabinieri, said: ‘This is by a long way the biggest recovery in history in terms of the quantity and quality of the archaeological treasures.’
Prosecutors say Basel-based art dealer Gianfranco Becchina and his wife, Ursula Juraschek,were part of an art smuggling ring stretching from ‘tombaroli’ grave robbers in southern Italy, to buyers across the globe.Dealers produced forged certificates of authenticity and created fake histories for them, so that museums and private collectors could buy them in good faith, police said.
The works were restored in Switzerland before being sold in Germany, Britain, the United States, Japan and Australia.Becchina was detained by Italian police while his wife was arrested by Swiss police.
Authorities have promised to put the 5,361 works, dating from the eighth century BC to the third century, on show to the public before they are returned to museums