Bust of Empress Livia

Bust of Empress Livia

This Bust of Roman Empress Livia, dating to the 1st Century CE, was unearthed in 1928 during excavations conducted by the Italian Archaeological Mission of the archaeological site Butrint, located in southern Albania. In 1940, the Italian Mission established a museum in Butrint for the display of excavated artifacts, including the bust.

Between 1990 and 1991, Albania was in a state of civil unrest due to the fall of communism. Sometime in 1991, the Museum of Butrint was looted and a number of objects were stolen, including the Livia Bust. The Bust made its way to Switzerland and remained there until 1995, when it reappeared as listed for sale by renowned New York antiquities dealer Robert Hecht.

Hecht featured it in the antiquities catalog 'From a North American Collection of Ancient Art', identified as a “Roman marble portrait of Livia (58 B.C.E. – 29 C.E.), wife of Augustus,” and purporting to be part of “a collection formed over the last forty years.” Hecht is most well-known for his prior involvement in the sale of the Euphronios krater to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Archaeologist Dr Elizabeth Bartmann recognized it as a work from Butrint, and informed the Albanian Embassy in Washington, D.C. Likewise, staff at the Glyptothek Museum in Munich had identified the object when Hecht enquired whether the museum would be interested in purchasing it, and alerted German law enforcement. Hecht withdrew the bust from sale, but it stayed in Switzerland even while listed by INTERPOL as stolen.

Finally, in 2000, Albanian authorities along with the Director of the International Centre for Albanian Archaeology, Dr Iris Pojani, approached Hecht, leading to the voluntary return of the bust to Tirana on November 3, 2000.

1

Sculpture

Roman

Glyptothek Museum in Munich

Albania

https://lootingmatters.blogspot.com/2009/08/albania-overview-of-butrint-returns.html

Jessica Wang

VG