Thousands of artifacts of historical and financial value, including items taken from graves and archaeological digs, have been recovered in Italy following a huge operation, authorities have said.

Italian police have arrested 21 out of 51 suspects in an operation which included hundreds of officers, authorities said at a press conference in the southern Italian region of Puglia on Wednesday.

Those arrested are under investigation for “numerous clandestine excavations, receiving stolen goods and illicit marketing, nationally and internationally, of very important archaeological finds,” said Renato Nitti, chief prosecutor in charge of the investigation in Trani, Puglia, in a press statement.

What was recovered?

Authorities recovered 3,586 pieces of “inestimable historical, artistic and commercial value” in Puglia, Basilicata, Campania, Abruzzo, Lazio and Trentino Alto Adige, said Vincenzo Molinese, head of Italy’s Carabinieri art police, at the press conference.

They also recovered 60 metal detectors and other objects consistent with clandestine excavations, including long metal spikes and shovels.

In the northern Italian municipality of Lavis, 1,679 bronze and silver archaeological coins – from Magna Graecia, Roman and Byzantine mints – dating to between the 4th century BC and 3rd century AD were uncovered. Hundreds of coins dating to the Roman Imperial era were found in the the city of Ciampino, near Rome.

Loom weights, bell-shaped craters, jugs, cups, plates, miniature vases and oil lamps were among the valuables recovered in the southern town of Spinazzola.

Many of the artifacts were taken by “tombaroli” – or grave robbers – in Campania, Basilicata and Puglia and trafficked across Italy and internationally to art collectors, authorities said.

Most are not documented and never-before-seen pieces taken directly from unexplored archaeological digs, added authorities.

“The investigation made it possible to ascertain and curb an impressive predatory action to the detriment of the archaeological heritage of our territory, of the exceptional cultural richness,” public prosecutor Nitti said at the press conference.

Nitti said the operation “demonstrates how our territory still holds immeasurable treasures,” attracting “robbers and unscrupulous traffickers.”

The investigation began last year after several clandestine digs were discovered in the Canosa region of Puglia, from where all of the items are thought to have originated.

The looting of ancient art in Italy is not a new phenomenon.

It emerged that the Covid-19 pandemic had offered thieves new opportunities to raid closed archaeological sites, churches and museums for priceless artifacts while police were reassigned to enforce lockdowns.

Arthur Brand, one of Europe’s foremost art detectives and author of “Hitler’s Horses: The Incredible True Story of the Detective who Infiltrated the Nazi Underworld,” told CNN in 2021 that at least half of ancient Roman artifacts on the market then were stolen.

“Still Life,” a short animation by Los Angeles-based filmmaker Conner Griffith, opens with a classic game of “guess which hand.” As the illustrated hands open and close, a tiny ball morphs into a series of tools and other household objects, and we are whisked off on a journey through more than 1,000 historic engravings. Collecting images from sources like the Iconographic Encyclopedia of Science, Literature, and Art and Gray’s Anatomy—both published in the 1850s and now in the public domain—Griffith examines how items and materials help to define lifestyles, attitudes, and consciousness of the world around us. “The film explores the idea that we live in a world of objects and a world of objects lives within us,” he says.

Find more of Griffith’s work on his website and on Vimeo.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article Conner Griffith Animates the World of Objects Through Historical Engravings in ‘Still Life’ appeared first on Colossal.

(Photo by iStock/Kesu01) 

This issue of Stanford Social Innovation Review marks several significant changes. In the last issue, which celebrated our 20th anniversary, I announced that our publisher, Michael Voss, and art director, David Herbick, were leaving the publication. I am now happy to announce that Marcia Zellers has joined SSIR as our new publisher, and David Armario has joined as our new art director.

Marcia Zellers started her career in magazine publishing, working as associate marketing director at teen girls’ magazine Sassy, marketing director at Spin (then the world’s second-largest music magazine after Rolling Stone), and publisher of the music magazine Reflex. She then moved into the digital world, becoming cofounder of MTV Online, where she led MTV’s joint venture with Yahoo to create a music search engine. From there she joined Warner Brothers as supervising producer of Entertaindom, one of the early entertainment web portals and streaming services.

Since then, Marcia has spent time working in the nonprofit sector as director of the American Film Institute’s digital content lab; in higher education, where she oversaw digital marketing to students for the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising; and most recently back again in the for-profit sector, where she has held a variety of positions at digital-marketing, advertising, and branding agencies, including chief creative officer, director of brand and customer experience, and president and managing director.

Our new art director, David Armario, has a long and distinguished career in magazine design. He was the design and art director of the monthly science magazine Discover, where he led a redesign of the publication. He was design and art director of the monthly Men’s Journal, one of the most popular consumer magazines targeted at men. And he was creative director of the monthly lifestyle magazine Los Angeles, where he also led a redesign.

More recently, David has led his own creative design and art direction studio, David Armario Design, which works with publications and retailers. He is the art director of several magazines, including Stanford Medicine and Stanford Lawyer. And he works with corporate clients as well, including Pottery Barn, Crate & Barrel, and Eileen Fisher.

I also want to call your attention to our magazine’s new design. Over SSIR’s 20-year history, the magazine has had three art directors, and each one has put his imprint on the publication. With this new design, David has created more white space, making the pages more pleasing to look at and the articles easier to read. He has also introduced a more contemporary design for the departments—“What’s Next,” “Field Report,” “Viewpoint,” “Research,” and “Books.” And he has refashioned the “Feature” and “Case Study” articles to make them more lively and visually engaging, adding more illustrations and more creative treatment of headlines and the overall layout. We hope you like it.

One thing that has not changed at SSIR is our mission. We remain committed to providing a media platform where people engaged in social change from all parts of society—nonprofit, government, and business—and from around the world can come together to share new ideas and practices, critique existing ones, and, most important, learn from one another.

Read more stories by Eric Nee.