A fresco depicting Hercules and originally from Herculaneum, a city destroyed along with Pompeii by the 79 A.D. eruption of Mount Vesuvius, was back in Italy Monday, along with 59 other ancient pieces illegally trafficked to the United States. A Kylix dish, dated to the V century B.C., is seen on display among other archaeological artifacts stolen from Italy and sold in the US by international art traffickers, during a press conference in Rome Last summer, U.S. authorities announced that the fresco and dozens of other trafficked objects, which ended up in private collections in the United States, would go back to Italy. Among the more precious pieces Italian and U.S. officials displayed to journalists in Rome is a B.C. kylix, or shallow two-handled drinking vessel, some 2,600 years old. Also returned is a sculpted marble head, from the 2nd century B.C., depicting the goddess Athena. Italy said the returned works are worth more than $20 million (18 million euros) overall. The fresco, do...
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