Etruscan Black Figured Kalpis

Etruscan Black Figured Kalpis

This Etruscan vase, a black figured kalpis, was acquired by the Toledo Museum of Art in 1982 and held there until 2013, when it was seized by investigators who determined it had been looted from Italy .

The kalpis was created about 520-510 BCE, and is attributed to the Micali painter. The terracotta water vessel depicts pirates on the Tyrrhenian Sea being transformed into dolphins by the god Dionysos.

The Toledo Museum purchased the Kalpis from Antike Kunst Palladion, an art gallery based in Basel, Switzerland owned by Gianfranco and Ursula Becchina. Gianfranco Becchina allegedly provided the museum with a false provenance for the vase, claiming he had purchased it in 1980 from "Mr. K Haug," who had inherited it from his father, who acquired it on the art market in 1935.

The false dating back to 1935 in Switzerland was likely intended to circumvent Italy’s 1939 patrimony law and export restrictions. This was a false provenance used frequently by Becchina to hide the fact that he had acquired objects from looters, according to his wife Ursula, who cooperated with Italian authorities after her arrest.

Records show the Becchinas had actually obtained the Kalpis from the Italian dealer Giacomo Medici. A Polaroid photograph found in Becchina’s archives showed the kalpis with dirt still on the vase, indicating that it had been recently excavated. A similar photo was found in the archives of Medici.

The kalpis was cited in Medici’s criminal conviction of December 2004. Medici admitted during his sentencing for violations of Italian patrimony and export laws to selling the looted kalpis to Becchina, which directly contradicted the provenance provided to the Toledo Museum of Art.

Investigations by Homeland Security Investigations led to the filing of a civil forfeiture case against the vase in June 2012. In January 2013, a ceremony was held at the Toledo Museum of Art to transfer the kalpis to HSI for repatriation to Italy.

1

Vessel

Etruscan

Toledo Museum of Art

82.134

Italy

1. Toledo Museum
2. Becchina archive

Alex Breitfelder; Damien Huffer

Vanessa Rousseau; Jason Felch