Ivory Mask of Apollo

Ivory Mask of Apollo

In March 2003, Italian police announced they had recovered one of the most important looted antiquities in history: an ivory mask of the god Apollo, the Greek sun god. Only one other life-sized ivory mask of this type exists, in the Apostolic Library in the Vatican. Some believe the Apollo mask was sculpted by Phidias, the sculptor to whom the Parthenon Marbles are attributed.

Italian investigators discovered the mask of Apollo had been unearthed in a field in 1994 by the well-known looter Pietro Casasanta. The findspot was identified as only a few hundred yards from the Baths of Claudius, and Casasanta told authorities that the mask was associated with three Egyptian statues of goddesses and several pieces of mosaic. It is possible that the archaeological context was a hoard or cache deposited for safekeeping but ultimately forgotten.

Casasanta smuggled the mask and three statues out of Italy and sold them to Nino Savoca for USD $10,000,000, according to The Medici Conspiracy (2006), as well as investigation by the Italian authorities. After struggling to find a buyer, Savoca only paid Casasanta USD $700,000, and the looter informed Italian authorities that the sculpture was now with a London antiquities dealer later identified as Robin Symes. The mask was seized in 2003 and returned to Italy after Symes agreed to not contest the seizure due to overwhelming evidence and Casasanta's confession about how he found and sold the mask.

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Jewelry – bracelets, rings, personal decoration

Sculpture – statues, carvings, bronzes, reliefs, figurines

Greek

Italy

Damien Huffer

Jason Felch