Italy recovers Etruscan artefacts dug up by 'amateurish' tomb raiders

By Alvise Armellini

Italian authorities have recovered precious 3rd century B.C. artefacts from an Etruscan necropolis looted by a couple of bungling tomb raiders in Umbria who stumbled across the haul on their land.

The Etruscans flourished in central Italy around 2,500 years ago but were gradually assimilated into the Roman empire. They left behind lavish tombs, pottery and statues but tantalisingly few written documents and patchy evidence of their daily lives.

The artefacts, including eight urns, two sarcophagi and beauty accessories such as bronze mirrors and a perfume bottle still redolent of its original scent, are worth at least 8 million euros ($8.5 million), Carabinieri art police said.

They were found in Citta della Pieve, about 150 kilometres (90 miles) north of Rome.

One sarcophagus contained the full skeleton of a woman in her 40s, while the urns were finely decorated with scenes from Greek mythology and female figures with still visible red paint on their lips and gold colouring on their jewels.

Police seized the loot from two entrepreneurs who had unearthed Etruscan burial chambers while excavating land they owned, Perugia Chief Prosecutor Raffaele Cantone told a press conference on Tuesday.

They "had nothing to do with the world of (practised) tomb raiders" and were "clumsy" and "amateurish" in the way they tried to access the black market for looted art, the prosecutor said.

The Carabinieri caught up with them after they posted pictures of their discovery on the internet in the hope of finding buyers, triggering investigations that included phone wiretaps, stakeouts and air surveillance drones.

Police finally swooped on the suspects after one of them posted on Facebook a picture of himself with a looted artefact, Cantone said.

The pair face charges related to theft and trading in stolen goods, and risk jail sentences of up to 10 years, said prosecutor Annamaria Greco, who led the investigation.

Another Etruscan tomb, belonging to the same "Pulfna" family, was found in Citta della Pieve in 2015. At the time, the farmer who made the discovery reported it to authorities and got about 100,000 euros ($105,000) as a reward.

Citta della Pieve is close to San Casciano dei Bagni, a Tuscan village where a major archaeological discovery was announced in 2022, with ancient bronze statues found among the mud of thermal baths once used by Etruscans and Romans.