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of antiquities and owner of the eponymous 17 th -century tower in Punta Scifo (Fig. 18), 79
added this personal note to his 1976 translation of François Lenormant’s La Grande
Grèce: “in the same little bay [of Punta Scifo] was raised the little marble group
representing Eros and Psyche, which I bought and is now in the Civic Museum of
Croton.” 80 This is a clear indication that the site had been looted sometime between 1915
and 1976. As the bay is extremely small, the wreck lies in shallow water, and its location
is easy to remember owing to the retaining walls of a farm facing the site, it was an
easily accessible target for local seamen and sport divers in the 1960s and 1970s.
Fig. 18. Lilia Campana marks the Punta Scifo B shipwreck’s location.
Lucifero Tower, in the background, overlooks the little bay.
(Photo: D. Bartoli).
In 1978 Patrizio Pensabene published a detailed review of all the marble pieces that he
could find since Orsi’s publications. He was able to locate only 27 pieces of the cargo,
79 A document dating to 1649 mentions the Punta Scifo tower as a “new and strong tower to watch all this
promontory.” (Valente 1960, 20-1, n.37).
80 Lenormant 1976, 223 n.29.
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