Pictured: “Apulian Volute Krater”

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr., today announced the return of 107 antiquities collectively valued at $1.2 million to the people of Italy. The objects were recovered pursuant to multiple ongoing criminal investigations and had been previously trafficked by several known antiquities’ smugglers, including Giacomo Medici, Giovanni Franco Becchina and Robert Hecht. Another alleged smuggler, Edoardo Almagià, has been charged by the Office and is the subject of an arrest warrant. [1] The pieces were often then passed along to notorious art dealers, including Robin Symes, a London-based dealer who was convicted in the UK for trafficking, and Herbert Cahn, a Swiss gallery-owner who received a suspended sentence in Italy for receiving stolen property.

“Our close collaboration with the Italian authorities continues to yield significant results, and I am thrilled that these 107 antiquities are being sent home,” said District Attorney Bragg. “Italy has unfortunately suffered significant and extensive looting over the past 60 years, and we will continue to do everything possible track down and return pieces that pass through Manhattan.”

Key pieces include:

• Terracotta Kylix Band-Cup: This fragment of a terracotta drinking cup dates to the middle of the 6th century B.C.E. and its base is decorated with a motif of lions and griffins arranged in a pinwheel pattern. The Kylix was found and illegally excavated from the Etruscan archaeological site of Vulci in the 1960s before it was smuggled out of Italy by the New York and Paris-based dealer Robert Hecht. It was eventually acquired by the Met in 2017 where it remained until it was seized by the ATU.
• Apulian Volute Krater: Dating to 320-310 B.C.E., this Red-figure terracotta vase originates from the Greek colony of Apulia in Southern Italy and depicts a male figure holding a helmet, the signature of the vase’s creator, the Helmet Painter. Edoardo Almagià allegedly trafficked the Krater into New York and sold it to the Manhattan-based gallery Antiquarium Ancient Arts prior to 1987. The Krater was recovered by the ATU from a private collection in 2024.
• The Bronze Patera is a 4th-century BCE Etruscan bowl with a handle in the form of Apollo. He holds a lyre in his right hand, highlighting his role as the god of music. The Patera was smuggled out of Italy, likely via Switzerland, by the convicted antiquities trafficker Gianfranco Becchina. From Becchina, the Patera eventually passed to the New York-based antiquities dealer Mathias Komor, who sold it to its present owner. The Patera was seized by the ATU in 2025.

During District Attorney Bragg’s tenure, the ATU has recovered over 2,225 antiquities stolen from 39 countries and valued at $250 million. Since its creation, the ATU has recovered almost 6,000 antiquities valued at over $460 million and has returned nearly 5,400 of them so far to 29 countries.

Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bogdanos, Chief of the Antiquities Trafficking Unit and Senior Trial Counsel, supervised the investigations, which were conducted by Assistant District Attorneys Yuval Simchi-Levi, Edward Smith, James Edwards-Lebair, and Jacqueline Studley; Investigative Analysts Giuditta Giardini, Charlotte Looram, and Michael Chapin, and Special Agents Robert Mancene and Robert Fromkin of Homeland Security Investigations. Investigative support was provided by Italian Carabinieri Officer Angelo Ragusa. The District Attorney’s Office would like to also thank the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Jennifer Morris, Cultural Heritage Partners, and the staff and board of Kitchen Angels for their assistance and cooperation with our investigations.

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[1] Any charges referenced herein that have not already resulted in convictions are merely allegations, and any individuals not convicted are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.  All factual recitations are derived from documents filed in court and statements made on the record in court.