Australian National University agrees to return stolen artefacts to Italy.

The Australian National University has agreed to return three Greco-Roman items from the collection of its Classics Museum after establishing that they were removed from the country illegally, according to a press release issued by the university on 15 September 2023. The first of these items is an amphora with a depiction of Herakles slaying the Nemean Lion on one side and a pair of warriors fighting on the reverse, known as the Johnson Vase, which is believed to have come from the workshop of the Athenian artist Exekias, who was active between 545 and 530 BC. This item was purchased from an auction at Sotherby's in London in 1984, from a dealer subsequently identified as having been involved in the trade in stolen artefacts.

The Attic belly amphora, with two warriors in combat, a slain warrior between their feet and a male attendant figures to either side. Australian National Museum.

The Johnson Vase was identified as having been stolen from Italy by the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, using an Artificial Intelligence system to search museum catalogues for missing art. After being contacted by the Caribinieri the Australian National University began an investigation into its collection, eventually identifying two further artefacts as stolen from Italy. The first of these, an Apulian red-figure Fish-plate, which was obtained in 1984 from Holland Coins and Antiquities, an American dealership run by David Holland Swingler, who was later unmasked as a major player in the international trade in stolen art, who smuggled stolen artefacts from Italy to the US in consignments of pasta and other foodstuffs. 

Georgia Pike-Rowney of the Australian National University with the Apulian Fish-plate. Jamie Kidston/Australian National Museum.

The third item identified as having been stolen from Italy was a Roman marble portrait head, again obtained from Sotherby's, although this time in 1968, and which was found to have belonged to the collection of the Vatican, and to have disappeared while display in the Lateran Palace in Rome.

A Roman marble head in the collection of the Australian National Museum, found to have been stolen from the Lateran Palace in Rome in thw 1960s. Jamie Kidston/Australian National Museum.

The Australian National Museum has reached an agreement with the Caribinieri whereby the Johnson Vase and Apulian Fish-plate will remain on display in the Classics Museum for four years, and remain in the collection for study for a further four years, before being returned to Rome. The Roman head is expected to be returned to the Vatican in the near future.

The depiction of Herakles slaying the Nemean Lion on the Johnson Vase. Bob Miller/Australain National Museum.

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