The United States officially returned 337 looted antiquities to Italy at a ceremony held at La Marmora barracks in Rome. Of these, 221 objects were repatriated through the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, while the remaining 116 were recovered on April 10, 2026, via joint efforts by the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, the District Attorney’s Office, and Christie’s New York auction house. The objects span from the Villanovan era (900–700 BCE) to the Hellenistic period (323–31 BCE) and include a 1st-century CE marble head of Alexander the Great, a bronze sculpture from Herculaneum, and two Egyptian basalt sculptures.
This repatriation underscores the ongoing collaboration between the U.S. and Italy in combating illicit trafficking of cultural property, a partnership formalized by a Memorandum of Understanding signed 25 years ago. Italian authorities estimate that this cooperation has returned tens of millions of euros in ancient objects to the country. The event highlights the increasing effectiveness of cross-border legal and investigative efforts to recover looted heritage and serves as a model for international cultural property restitution.