Italy secures return of smuggled treasures from US

Police from the art unit of Italy's carabinieri paramilitary force said that the owner of the collection "spontaneously" returned the items after investigators determined that they had originated from secret and illegal excavations of archaeological sites.

"The Menil Collection declined these works from the collector and they have never been part of the museum's collection," Tommy Napier, a spokesman for Menil, told the Associated Press in a statement.

Italian officials noted that 145 of the returned artifacts were associated with a bankruptcy case against English antiques dealer Symes.

The looted artifacts, many of which were seized by the Manhattan district attorney's office earlier this year, include an Apulian krater, or vase, from 335 BC.

The stolen vase found its way into Symes' hands and was "laundered through Sotheby's London", according to a statement from the Manhattan office.

The returned collection also includes two Etruscan tile paintings from 440 BC. The tiles, stolen in the 1980s, were sold by Symes to famed New York collectors Shelby White and Leon Levy for $1.6 million in 1992, but were returned to Italy after the collectors became aware of their illicit origins.

Reuters noted that in September last year, the US returned stolen art worth $19 million to Italy, which included a marble head of the goddess Athena, dated 200 BC, worth an estimated $3 million alone.