Three Roman Heads from Butrint

Three Roman Heads from Butrint

In 2003, Greece returned three Roman-era heads to Albania, which had been stolen from the Archaeological Museum of Butrint following the fall of communist rule in the early 1990s.

Two of the sculptures, a Head of a Young Woman (Inv. 50) and a Head from a Herculaneum Type Figure (Inv. 584), were unearthed by the Italian Archaeological Mission during excavations at Butrint from 1929-1932. The third sculpture of the Head of a Man (possibly Agrippa) was discovered at the site in the 1980s. All three works had been deposited in the Archaeological Museum at Butrint and were stolen when the museum was looted in 1991.

Little is known about where the heads were kept after the theft or how they were smuggled out of Albania, but all three were seized by Greek authorities and temporarily deposited in local museums prior to their repatriation. The two female heads were confiscated in Glyfada, Attica and stored at the National Archaeological Museum, while the Head of Agrippa was seized in Preveza, Northwest Greece, and kept in the Ioannina Archaeological Museum. After Albanian officials confirmed that these were the missing pieces, the Greek Ministry of Culture repatriated the three heads to Albania on July 5, 2003, at a ceremony held at the Butrint Archaeological site.

3

Sculpture – statues, carvings, bronzes, reliefs, figurines

Roman

Albania

Lisa Duffy-Zeballos

Michela Herbert