The Met's Etruscan chariot

In this case, it's simply not going back:

A small mountain village in Umbria is fighting New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art for the ownership of a 2,600-year-old Etruscan war chariot.

The Met intends to make the carefully restored bronze war chariot, which dates from 530BC, the star attraction of its $155 million (£80 million) Leon Levy and Shelby White Court, part of a new wing which is due to open on April 20. . .

For the past decade, the Met has been carefully restoring the chariot, said to be the only intact Etruscan chariot ever found, to its former glory. The three panels of the 14ft vehicle show scenes from the life of Achilles . . .

A spokesman said the museum had bought the chariot "in good faith", although he admitted that, since it has been in their collection for more than a 100 years, there were no papers to prove its provenance.

The chariot was found in 1902, and though its export was held up by protests, it seems no laws prohibited its sale abroad at the time:

Italy made its first law on protecting its cultural heritage in 1906, two years after the chariot's arrival in New York.

A law stating that every archaeological find is the property of the state was signed in 1939.

Maurizio Fiorilli, the lawyer in charge of the Italian government's efforts to reclaim its antiquities, said: "In this case, there are no real rights."

From the Telegraph.

Posted by David on April 10, 2007 5:35 PM