A mosaic panel stolen from Pompeii by a German Nazi captain during the second world war has been returned to the ancient site in southern Italy. The mosaic, which dates between the last century BC and the first century AD, depicts a pair of lovers, showing a naked woman standing over her partner.
According to the Associated Press, the owner, a deceased German citizen, received the mosaic as a gift from a Wehrmacht (Nazi armed forces) captain based in Italy during the war. Relatives of the deceased contacted the carabinieri art squad, the branch of Italy’s national police that handles most of the country’s art crime cases. Following authenticity and provenance checks, the work was subsequently repatriated from Germany in late 2023 through diplomatic channels arranged by the Italian consulate in Stuttgart.
“Every looted artefact that returns is a wound that heals, so we express our gratitude to the [carabinieri] protection unit for the work they have done,” Gabriel Zuchtriegel, the director of Pompeii archaeological park, said in a statement. “The wound lies not so much in the material value of the work but in its historical value, a value that is severely compromised by the illicit trafficking of antiquities.”
In 2020, a Canadian tourist, who removed two mosaic tiles and parts of an amphora from Pompeii, reportedly returned the items, saying they had brought her bad luck. Zuchtriegel highlighted the so-called “Pompeii curse” which supposedly affects whoever steals artifacts from the site.
The Archaeological Park of Pompeii was contacted for comment.