The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office announced the recent repatriation of antiquities to Italy.
The objects were recovered pursuant to criminal investigations into multiple antiquities trafficking networks involving, among others, convicted traffickers Giacomo Medici, Giovanni Franco Becchina, Robin Symes, Robert Hecht, Eugene Alexander and alleged trafficker Edoardo Almagià.
Thie Manhattan DA Office has received an arrest warrant for Edoardo Almagià, awaiting extradition from Italy. To date, this Office has executed 37 seizures of 295 objects trafficked by Almagià, collectively valued at more than $6 million.
Eugene Alexander was convicted by this Office on July 8, 2025, of Conspiracy in the Fifth Degree to Commit Antiquities Trafficking. To date, this Office has executed 8 seizures of 69 antiquities valued at $32.9 million—some of which were repatriated yesterday—that had been trafficked pursuant to a conspiracy involving Eugene Alexander and Michael Ward, who was convicted in September 2023. Alexander also forfeited $750,000.
Among the antiquities repatriated to Italy on August 5, 2025, are the following:
Head of Alexander: this 1st-century C.E. marble head depicts Alexander the Great as Helios, the sun god. Excavated from the Basilica Emilia in the Roman Forum, the Head was stolen from the Antiquarium Forense Museum, a state-run archaeological museum in Rome. After being laundered through several individuals and institutions in New York, it was acquired in good faith by Alan Safani in 2017. The Office seized the piece pursuant to a warrant, and Safani eventually agreed to surrender the Head to this Office so that it could be repatriated.
Terracotta Column-Krater: these 61 fragments of a terracotta column-krater attributed to the Lydos Painter date to 580 B.C.E. Their history illustrates the complex lengths to which smugglers will go to traffic their looted antiquities—breaking objects into fragments to sell the pieces individually and bringing these pieces to market over the course of several years. Pieces were loaned by Robin Symes to the Getty Museum; donated by Robert Hecht to the Princeton Art Museum; and donated by Jonathan Rosen to the Met. By 1997, the Met acquired all the fragments. In 2025, The ATU seized all 61 fragments from the Met.
Nine Tarentine Objects: a Limestone Column Capital, Capital Fragment, a Corinthian Column Capital, a Pair of Terracotta Plaques with Glass Inlays, Three Fragments of a Limestone Relief, and a Limestone Relief with the Figure of a Woman. These nine Tarentine objects date to the 4th and 3rd centuries B.C.E. and originate from tombs in southern Italy. In 1995, the Capital Fragment and the Limestone Column were donated to the Met with no prior provenance. The remaining seven objects were unknown until the mid-1990s, when they first appeared together in the possession of Robin Symes with the only provenance being the ubiquitous “English collection” often used to conceal the real sources of looted antiquities. The Met purchased all seven objects from Symes between 1996 and 1999. The ATU seized all nine Tarentine objects from the Met in 2025.
Fabrizio Di Michele, Consul General of Italy in New York, stated: “I wish to express our profound gratitude to the Antiquities Trafficking Unit of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and the Carabinieri Comando per la Tutela del Patrimonio Culturale. Their highly effective partnership in combating the illicit trade of cultural property has culminated in another important restitution to Italy of 31 artifacts. These items—stolen, illegally unearthed, or clandestinely exported—hold an estimated value of over 4 million dollars and are of immeasurable scientific and cultural importance for our country.”