US returns more than 250 ancient artefacts to Italy after police discover they were stolen in1990s

The US has returned 266 ancient artefacts worth tens of millions of euros to Italy after police discovered they had been stolen during the late 1990s.

A specialist unit of Italy’s carabinieri police said the return of the items, which were brought and sold by an international network of artefact smugglers, was due to the cooperation between Italian and U.S. judicial authorities.

Police say the items had been looted and sold to museums and private collectors in the US.

The items which date back to the 9th century BC, include works belonging to the periods of the Etruscan civilisation, Magna Graecia and Imperial Rome.

The artefacts, which include several painted pots, the head of a statue and some coins, were displayed at a restitution ceremony earlier this week in New York.

 As a result bankruptcy proceedings against an antiquities dealer 145 pieces were recovered and a further 65 artefacts came from the Menil Collection museum in the US city of Houston.

A spokesperson for the museum said it had been offered the artefacts as a gift but had referred the donor to the Italian Minister of Culture who alerted the museum that Italy was claiming the objects.

The spokesperson said: “The Menil Collection declined these works from the collector and they have never been part of the museum’s collection.”

Italy has previously attempted to track down artefacts stolen and sold to private collectors and museums.

In September last year New York returned a collection of items worth $19m (£16m) to Italy, which included a marble head of the goddess Athena dated 200BC, worth an estimated $3m (£2.3m).

Additional reporting by Reuters.