Christie’s, which said the artefacts were “acquired in the past in good faith”, voluntarily returned them at a ceremony at the Italian Embassy in London on Tuesday, which was attended by Italy’s culture minister Alberto Bonisoli.
The move reflects Rome’s long-standing efforts to repatriate antiquities it says were illegally obtained and trafficked on the art market.
“The restitution confirms the effectiveness of the collaboration between our country and the giants of the art market such as Christie’s in the fight against illegal trafficking of works of art,” Bonisoli said in a statement issued by the embassy.
The initiative was considered the “first time that such a close work of cooperation between the Italian state and a private auction house has taken place”.
The returned items include a marble fragment from a sarcophagus in Rome’s Catacombs of St Callixtus, an Etruscan terracotta mask that dates to between the 6th and the 5th centuries BC, ancient Greek plates and vases, and an ancient Roman capitol.
Italy claims the items were looted between the 1960s and 1980s and illegally trafficked out of the country.
Christie’s said the artefacts “were more recently identified as not having the required, verifiable title, export or provenance details needed to proceed with a sale”.
