ALCUNE NOTE AI MARGINI DELLA MOSTRA “COLORI DEGLI ETRUSCHI. TESORI DI TERRACOTTA ALLA CENTRALE MONTEMARTINI”: SUL RIENTRO IN ITALIA DI UN’ANTEFISSA CON MENADE DANZANTE DA VEIO

Abstract

While a Rome-based exhibition on looted artworks, entitled ‘Colori degli Etruschi: Tesori di terracotta alla Centrale Montemartini’, was taking place, an Etruscan polychrome antefix from the 5th century BCE, in the shape of a dancing Maenad, was being put up for sale by Christie’s. Bulgari, the famous jewelry firm, purchased the antefix to donate it to the Italian State. In July 2020, in the course of the restitution ceremony, the piece was put on display in the ongoing exhibition. The antefix is identical to another such piece, now at the Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia, which was discovered in Veii in 1937-1938. Both pieces were cast from the same mold and decorated by the same workshop. This suggests that they must have originally been part of the decoration of a building, which was then looted by grave robbers.