Amphora by the "painter of Berlin" (RMN-Grand Palais (Musee du Louvre))

Italy is requesting the restitution of seven historic items held by the Louvre which are believed to have been looted, including a fifth-century amphora by the so-called Berlin painter.

According to the museum's director, Laurence des Cars, the artworks are under investigation. Des Cars told Le Monde, "I consider that works that have a dubious provenance are a stain in the collections of the Louvre. We must examine [these cases] with rigour and lucidity.”

Italian Minister of Culture Gennaro Sangiuliano met with Des Cars in February to discuss the probable return of the works. Luigi La Rocca from the Italian Ministry of Culture presented a list of artifacts in the Louvre's collection requested by Italy last September, including the krater of the painter of Antimenes and a Heracles head from the ancient Etruscan city of Cerveteri.

According to Des Cars, "We will enter a new phase this fall, at the end of which we will recommend a position [on the contested works] to the Ministry of Culture.”

Le Monde disclosed that some works of art can be linked to convicted antiquities dealers Giacomo Medici and Gianfranco Becchina.

A cache of Medici-related Polaroids, papers, and antiques was discovered in a Geneva Freeport in 1995, confiscated by Italian authorities, and submitted as proof in a prominent theft case in Italy in 2005. Becchina's photo archives were confiscated by Swiss authorities in 2001 and given over to the Carabinieri, Italy's leading criminal enforcement organization.

Maurizio Pellegrini and Daniela Rizzo, archaeologists who once worked for the Italian Ministry of Culture years ago, identified four artifacts in the Louvre's collection. Upon looking through records, they determined that the Louvre purchased the krater by the "painter of Antimenes" from the vendor in 1987 for $290,000.

Christos Tsirogiannis, Director of Illicit Antiquities study (UNESCO Chair), Ionian University, Greece, is another specialist who has traced the pieces in the Louvre. He discovered the "Berlin painter" amphora in the Medici archives. The piece, which had previously been held by oil magnates Nelson and William Hunt, was purchased by the Louvre at a London auction in 1994.

Tsirogiannis wrote to Cécile Giroire, the director of the Louvre's Greek, Etruscan, and Roman departments, earlier this year, asking her to support his bid for a European Research Council (ERC) grant that would allow him to examine over 50,000 images of works confiscated from antiquities traffickers. However, the ERC denied his application.

Tsirogiannis told The Art Newspaper, “I wrote to Giroire in January, offering to cooperate in searching the Louvre’s collection of antiquities [in relation to] the dealers’ confiscated archives; my aim was to research the trafficking networks that supplied the Louvre and other museums across Europe with illicit antiquities. I offered my cooperation for free, subject to a successful application to the European Research Council."