Italy
Art world news: Gagosian’s smooth dealings, Norton's $6 tantrum, and the new Roman takeover
Meanwhile, Ricard tries his hand at larceny while Blum's Judd masterpiece makes bank
Oriental origins of Italian Renaissance art
How Islamic decorative arts influenced 15th- and 16th-century Western artists
Photographs of Sicily: shame into hope
Letizia Battaglia recorded the Mafia violence that defined Palermo’s darkest years, while fighting for change through her work as a photojournalist, politician, environmentalist and human rights activist
Senatorial pulling power brings Raphaels to France
Despite curators’ protests, the French senate has pushed through a Raphael exhibition at the Musée du Luxembourg, Paris
In full: the text of the US Customs import restrictions on Italian archaeological material
The restrictions were imposed following a 1999 request made by Italy under Article 9 of the Unesco Convention
Exhibition on tomb-robbers' effect on archaeological sites opens in Palestrina, Italy
Wounded archaeology
Bella Napoli, Museo di San Martino, Naples
The San Martino’s decorative arts and theatre collections are, at last, on show again, in new rooms
"My life as a tombarolo." The Art Newspaper goes underground in the world of illicit archaeology
Cristina Ruiz spent a day with the man who controls much of the illicit excavation on the site of ancient Veii, one of the largest Etruscan cities.
Italian embassy in London pursues claim to Benevento missal
The Art Newspaper has tracked down further details of what happened to the twelfth-century manuscript during World War II
Italian cathedral claims missal in British Library
Change of attitude towards restitution requests may signal changes in UK law
Turin gets a private museum of decorative art
Pietro Accorsi's long wait to showcase his collection is over
Cross-border buoyancy in the European Old Master market
Plotting national tastes and identifying certain general market trends
Restitution battles rage from Seattle to Paris to Budapest to New Zealand
Matisse Odalisque restored to the Rosenberg family
US court returns Steinhardt antiquity to Italy but fails to settle key restitution question
The penalty of lying to customs
Letter discovery suggests inter-war bell rivalry
The letter was written by Giacomo Boni and dates from 1925
Revealed: the Mafia’s interest in archaeology
Esteemed artworld professionals have been arrested as part of a wide-reaching investigation into antiquities smuggling with links to an ongoing New York court case.
Michael Steinhardt is refusing the Italian State’s claim for the return of a fifth-century phiale
The US collector challenges Italy’s law
Ferrara pays homage to Aby Warburg
Palazzo Schifanoia displays archive material from the Warburg Institute to commemorate her work
Anatomy of plunder: Maurice Tempelsman finds himself at the centre of a scandal over illegally excavated antiquities
Jackie’s companion targeted for buying $1 million of hot Greek body parts
Florentine seizure of war-theft paintings on loan from New Zealand
It is alleged that they were stolen from the collection of Cino Vitta, head of the Jewish community in Florence during the war
The tensions in copyright law between the rights of artist, public and trade
We asked a number of lawyers to comment on the situation with regard to catalogues in their own jurisdictions, and found that the scope of protection varies widely
Ten out of forty-six new World Heritage sites confirmed in Italy alone due to the Piedmont’s latest emphasis on culture and tourism
Out of the ten newly designated Unesco sites, the biggest includes eighteen royal Savoy properties
Furniture in the Palazzo Pitti, table tops take the palm
The second of the four volume series on the furniture of the Pitti Palace makes its debut
State intervention on humanist manuscripts in Feltrinelli Library sale at Christie's
Top lots go to private collectors, but the Italian State and European dealers put up a fight
The grandest archaeological project since Mussolini’s time has required a special, bureaucracy-defeating agreement
Where archaeology becomes power
Sargent’s summer holidays warm up NYC in new show on his travels abroad
The Adelson Galleries explores Sargent's sketches and watercolours from his many journeys
Changes to Italy's import-export regulations
An art dealer reads the small-print of a new Italian government regulation that enables its officials to “notify” works even when on temporary importation
War and peace photography of Robert Capa on show at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni
A celebration of a dramatic life
In 1993 Rome’s town council began preparing for the Millennium. The debate has been over how much to alter Mussolini’s propagandistic exploitation of imperial remains
The priject to execavate the imperial fora of Augustus, Vespasian, Nerva and Trajan has been described as “every archaeologist’s dream”