Raiding the Tomb Raiders

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I One of Conforti's men w h i i as he realired what he was looking at. Inside the safe were 20 of the most exquisite classical Greek dinner plates tha any- there that day had ever seen. at. Inside were 20 of the most exquisite classical Greek din- ORTUNATELY, THE MAN WHOM Conforti and public prosner plates that anyone there that day had ever seen, plus a ecutor Paolo Ferri were interested in above all others, number of red-figure vases by famous~classical vase painters. Robert Hecht, now lived in Paris, and the French police were The Carabinieri immediately recognized one as by none other more cooperative than most. Hecht's family had founded the . than Euphronios. Together, the objects in the safe must have Hecht chain of department stores and he had grown up in been worth millions of dollars. Baltimore. Born in 1919, he attended Haverford College, The plates and the Euphronios vase utside Philadelphia. He won a fellowship at the Arneriwere taken out and placed an Academy in Rome, but in 1950, he turned from the on the glass-topped table. academic life to dealing art and made his first sale, an Apulian vase of the fourth century BE., objects in the cupboards, which he sold to the Metrotook several photographs from politan. A raid was scheduled various angles. Then the team moved on to the inner room. a s was no less astonishing, but in a different way. It was knocked on the door. Hecht's brimming, not with antiquities ex-wife, Elisabeth, opened it. At first she tried to resist the incoming policemen. She said echt wasn't there and, moreover, that Polaroids, others negative did not live there, and hadn't for 15 , antiquities, many of which had dirt on them. ars. The police-both French and There were stacks of documents--invoices, consignment notes, condition reports, letters, and checks. The letterheads on some of the invoices and correspondence told their own story: Atlantis Antiquities Robin Syrnes Limited, London; P Geneva; the J. Paul Getty F around the inner room no attempt at concealment. essive chandelier, and re was a study on the he bedrooms, which, rabinieri in the raid- this occasion-at
What interest did Hecht have in the Morgantina silver? According to the Metropolitan's official account, the silver pieces came from Turkey and were acquired. legally. in Switzerland. two warriors, a winged figure-and one showed a sculpture with two horses' heads. Polaroids of an identical object had been found among Medici's documents in Geneva. Another president of the Metropolitan Museum, had been found in the safe at Geneva, and the same set of photographs that Medici had. These were in a folder with a copy of a letter that Hecht had sent to the Getty in which he informed the museum that he had the plates on consignment from Medici. A final folder of photographs showed 23 objects, each of which had been found in Medici's photograph albums seized in Geneva. In a sense, however, these photographs and letters, though very useful as corroboration, only con- collectors and the great museums. Other documentation found in Hecht's Paris apartment was more interesting for the fresh light it threw A set of 20 looted Attic plates, photographed authorities, is disappointing, e nature of Hecht's close relans with museums-and theirs h him-was further reinforced two other documents found in th& rtment. These were notices, sent to There was one other document of consequence that the the main figure, the top man at the head of the network that smugled material out of Italy. But, more than that, during the subsequent investigations, they had picked up from various sources the Fact that many of the lesser figures were frightened of Hecht and intimidated by him. The reason for this, they were told, was that Hecht had let it be known-among those he dealt with regularly-that he was writing a book about Archaeology July/August 2006
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Page 4: Hecht's name was underlined, and fr

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