ROME
The Italian Culture Ministry and the Princeton University Art Museum signed a deal Tuesday for the return of eight disputed antiquities to Italy Rome’s latest coup in its efforts to recover treasures it says were looted from the country.
Under the deal, the New Jersey museum will transfer legal title to Italy of eight ancient artifacts including pottery and sculpture from the Greek and Etruscan cultures, the ministry said in a statement.
Half of the objects will be handed over within the next 60 days, while the other four will remain at the museum until 2011. In exchange, Italy will loan Princeton other treasures of “equal historical-artistical interest,” the statement said.
The two sides will also increase cultural cooperation through joint exhibitions and archaeological digs.
Among the objects covered by the deal is a prized “psykter” a Greek vase decorated with red figures that was used for cooling wine. Made in Athens around 500 B.C., a period of unequaled mastery for pottery in the ancient world, the vase was imported by the Etruscan culture that dominated central Italy.
The psykter is one of the four pieces that will remain on loan in Princeton for four years. The other returning objects include a 6th-century B.C. Etruscan statue depicting the head of a winged lion and other vases from Greece and southern Italy painted with mythological themes.
