Italy returns ancient smuggled items to Pakistan, urges others to do same
By The Canadian Press
Monday, June 25, 2007

 

The items were spotted by authorities during a trade fair near Milan in 2005.

It was not clear how long they had been in Italy, but they were smuggled as modern Thai art from southwestern Pakistan and southeastern Iran, officials said. A group of Italian experts will help restore them in Pakistan, Rutelli said.

Italy has been on an aggressive campaign to recover antiquities it says were smuggled out of the country and sold to museums worldwide. New York¢s Metropolitan Museum of Art and Boston¢s Museum of Fine Arts have agreed to return antiquities.

The former curator of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, Marion True, and art dealer Robert Hecht are on trial in Rome for allegedly knowingly receiving dozens of archaeological treasures that were stolen or dug up illicitly. The two Americans deny wrongdoing.