Expert says the rare piece in the Getty Museum in Los Angeles is linked to a dealer accused of trafficking antiquities
A leading expert on looted antiquities is calling for the J Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles to return a Roman fresco fragment to Italy, claiming he has evidence that links the piece to a notorious dealer.
Prof Christos Tsirogiannis has a photograph of the same fresco fragment from the archive of Robert Hecht who died in 2012, having faced accusations that he trafficked in illicit artefacts. These artefacts included a 2,500-year-old Greek vase that he sold in 1972 for a then record $1m to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and which was subsequently returned to Italy in 2008.
