Looted Etruscan Artwork Recovered from Amateurish Tomb Raiders

Italian Police have announced the recovery of looted artifacts stolen from a necropolis in Italy, according to a statement from the Italian Ministry of Culture. The artifacts, from Umbria in central Italy, date to the 3rd century BC and are Etruscan, a civilization which controlled central Italy before Rome was the dominant power in the region.

The authorities do not characterize the robbers as sophisticated black marketeers but rather amateurish idiots, according to their statement. The items were found for sale on Facebook, and 

The items for sale were mainly funerary objects. Bronze mirrors, a perfume bottle and a bone comb were among the treasures, but there were larger items too much at least show the daring and scope of the looters: several Etruscan sarcophagi were also recovered. One still had its occupant, the skeleton of a woman, inside.

• The Ahhiyawa and Wilusa: Did the Hittites Know of the Trojan War?
• Urim and Thummim: How God Told the Hebrews What to Do

There were also bronze vessels used for banqueting, and a total of eight decorative urns depicting scenes of battle and hunting. It would seem the items all come from the same tomb complex, likely used by a wealthy Etruscan family, which the authorities have traced to Citta della Pieve just north of Rome. 

Etruscan burials in the are have been known since 2015 when a farmer working his field accidentally uncovered some artifacts. However the extent of the treasures hidden here, and by extension the extent of the theft, was not known until now. The authorities say the artifacts could have fetched millions of dollars on the black market.

The Etruscans are much more mysterious to us than their successors the Romans. They were a regional power, a confederation of city states who ruled the region for almost a thousand years before they were absorbed into the newly established Roman Empire in 27 BC. What survives reveals that their aesthetic was very different to their glorious successors.

It seems that the artifacts came from a local landowner near the Etruscan site who was traced through the mobile phones of the people trying to sell the artifacts on Facebook. Two arrests have been made, in what the Ministry of Culture considers perhaps the most important recovery of stolen Etruscan artifacts ever.

Header Image: The tomb raiders did not stop at stealing Etruscan funerary items: entire sarcophagi were stolen. Source: Italian Ministry of Culture.