Getty Museum returns Head of Hades to Italy

(AGI) Los Angeles, Jan 27 - The Head of Hades will be returning to Italy. This work of exceptional artistic value was stolen in the area of Enna, Sicily, in the late 1970s, illegally exported to the U.S. and sold to the Getty Museum in 1985 for 500,000 dollars. Its return was made possible by the effective cooperation between the Italian Consulate General in Los Angeles, the Enna public prosecutors' office and the Carabinieri, and the John Paul Getty Museum. "We owe it especially to the commitment and competence of Italian archaeologists who from a ringlet of blue pottery found among the remains of the illegal excavations in San Francesco Bisconti were able to establish the origin of the head of the same characteristic colour housed at the Getty," explained Consul General, Antonio Verde. For his part, Deputy Public Prosecutor, Francesco Rio, author in 2014 of the international rogatory letter that laid the groundwork for the return, expressed appreciation for the responsiveness and helpfulness of the major Californian museum. Indeed, the Getty Museum allowed the comparison of the first ringlet with the Head of Hades, and then of three others later found by the Archaeological Museum of Aidone (Enna). Mr Rio also emphasised the painstaking work of the Carabinieri Department Cultural Heritage Supervision (CCTPC), led by Major Luigi Mancuso. The Head of Hades, also called Bluebeard, will be back home on Friday after a ceremony in the presence of the Consul General and Italian judicial and police authorities. (AGI). .