A marble head of Alexander the Great dating from the first century was among hundreds of cultural artifacts returned to Italy from the U.S. in recent months, police said on Wednesday.
Other recovered items include a stolen bronze sculpture from the ancient Roman city of Herculaneum that, like nearby Pompeii, was buried when Mount Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79 and two Egyptian basalt sculptures.
Thousands of works of art have been repatriated from the U.S. to Italy since 2022, with a total estimated value of several tens of millions of euros.
A total of 337 were brought back between December last year and this month, police said in a statement.
"The recovered items mainly include archaeological remains, archival documents and works of art, most of them originating from illegal excavations or stolen from cultural institutions and then placed on the international market," it added.
Operations to track down and recover Italian property in the U.S. involved several law enforcement agencies, including the FBI.
"Culture is not lost, it is not forgotten," said Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli. "It is preserved, restored and, above all, returned to the community."
"These precious testimonies will now be the subject of study, protective measures and promotion, so they can return to their places of origin and be accessible to the public."
