Ancient Roman Artifact Seized by Italian Police

ROME â€" Military police officers in the northern Italian city of Piacenza announced Thursday that they had recovered the head of a more than 2,000-year-old Roman statue likely plundered from Italian soil.

The terracotta head, which archeologists date to the late Republican eraâ€"from the second to the first century B.C.â€"was being discreetly shopped around on the underground antiquities market, in an unsuccessful effort that ultimately tipped off the police. The artifact was confiscated last week from a 62-year-old dentist from Parma, who was unable to produce convincing documents proving ownership, said Captain Rocco Papaleo, the carabinieri officer who led the investigation. The terracotta body that was once attached to the head has not been identified.

In recent years, the Italian state has actively pursued the sale of antiquities illegally looted from Italy's archeologically rich soil, toughening laws against the plunderers and aggressively pursuing forei gn museums with archeological holdings with iffy provenance in court. That may have put off some buyers, Capt. Papaleo suggested.

“It was either too expensive or potential buyers were nervous about acquiring it,” he said.

The dentist, who was not identified, had entrusted the statue to an antique furniture restorer in Piacenza to sell it “for many thousands of euros,” Capt. Papaleo said.

The dentist told the carabinieri that he'd had the artifact, which he conserved in a special showcase in his home, for thirty years. But archeologists who examined the terracotta head on Thursday said it might come from a much fresher dig.

Archeologists will test the dirt still attached to the head “to determine how long it's been out of the ground,” said Filippo Maria Gambari, the culture ministry official in charge of archeology for the region of Reggio Emilia, where the head was confiscated. Based on an initial impression, he said, the statue seems to h ave been dug up “no more than ten years ago, perhaps even less,” but only scientific analysis will arrive at a more precise dating. Tests on the dirt and on the head itself should also help archeologists to zero in on its origins. “Maybe not the exact spot, but at least in the vicinity,” he said. “Votive sculptures like this were common in Republican sanctuaries found in both Lazio and Campania and even further south.”