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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Intervention/Lets Help The
Carabinieri's Tutela Patrimonio Culturale SAVE The Memorandum Of
Understanding<br>
</span>By Charles
Vincent Sabba Jr.<span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><br>
America Oggi/Oggi7<br>
<br>
The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is an agreement that
restricts the importation of Italian antiquities into the U.S. dating
from 900 BC to 500 AD. This has been an effective deterrent to the
illicit antiquities trade. This type of market promotes and finances
major criminal organizations funds terrorist cells. Police personel
risk their lives daily in Italia to intervene in these
types of criminal activities. If the US government allows this
agreement with
one of our loyal allies to expire, the
consequences will be incalcuable.<br>
<br>
If the mou expires, dirty dealers and greedy collectors will
begin to
weave their dishonest webs at alarming rates. In US auction houses, it
is becoming more common that items of illicit nature are found; Without
the MOU's renewal this will surely increase.
The level of sensitivity to these problems, as well as controls, are
much lower here than in Europe. Museum curators are tempted by
this big money also. A dishonest curator
who orchestrates the purchase of an antiquity with a questionable
provenance can receive a 10 to 20 % kick back of the items final
price. There are many
instances in which U.S. museums have purchased
antiquities that the Italian government believed to have been dug up
from illicit archeological sites and smuggled out of Italy. Two prime
examples of this are the attic-red figured Euphronious krater and the
Morgantina Silver, which were bought by the Metropolitan Museum
of Art in N.Y. with the help of an antiquario named Robert Hecht The
Italian authorities insist they have proof that these treasures were
unearthed
from illicit archeological sites in Tuscany and Sicily by looters and
illegally smuggled out of the country. The Italian government demanded
repatriation of all of these works and the museum resisted their effort
to repatriate its cultural property.<br>
<br>
The Carabinieri's TPC has stated in the past, that besides the Met in
NY, there are many other large American museums that possess
archeological objects that were obtained illegally, the most notorious
is the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. A curator from the Getty
Museum, Marion True, has recently been indicted, along with
Robert Hecht, and an
Italian dealer named Giacomo Medici, for criminal conspiracy to receive
stolen goods and illicit receipt of archeological objects.
With this trial, the result of a ten year TPC investigation, the
Carabinieri are sending a strong message to criminals: do not dig up,
steal, or smuggle Italy's artistic heritage!<br>
<br>
The Italian Carabinieri's Tutela Patrimonio Culturale was established
in 1969. They were the first police unit in the world specialized
in art crimes. They are respected worldwide as the elite
investigators in this field.<br>
<br>
It is a human duty to preserve the world's cultural patrimony.
The patrimony of Italy belongs first and foremost to the Italian
people. A generous people who are willing to share their artistic
wealth with visitors to Italy and through museum loans. The Italian's
are also a strong willed people who refuse to let criminals
steal their treasures. The illicit antiquities trade is a
criminal enterprise, operated by criminals, who are committing crimes
against the Italian people. We must renew the MOU.<br>
<span style="font-style: italic;"><br>
www.americaoggi.info<br>
</span><br>
<br>
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