American returns looted antiques he inherited from his German-Dutch grandmother | Abroad

John Gomperts, who lives in Washington, realized after reading an article in the British newspaper The Guardian that the ancient artifacts – including two Cypriot vases from the 7th and 8th centuries – could have come from illegal excavations, as there was no known collection history.

Gomperts thought it would be legal and ethical to return ancient assets to Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Pakistan. “I thought it was the right thing to do. I read stories about repatriation and thought: we have 2,500-year-old pieces from other countries; we need to investigate to see if we can return them,” the man told the newspaper.

His big question was: how to return such antiquities without the authorities thinking that he stole them himself? He decided to contact a former Cambridge University field archaeologist, who was quoted in the newspaper reports. Christos Tsirogiannis is now the head of the investigation into the illegal antiquities trade at the Ionian University in Corfu, Greece. In fifteen years, he identified more than 1,600 artefacts looted from auction houses, private collections and museums and returned them to their rightful owners. For example, he fought with the famous auction house Sotheby’s for an ancient Greek bronze horse, which returned to Greece after legal proceedings.

Tsirogiannis identified the antiquities that Gomperts showed him and indicated the country to which they should be returned. “Twelve objects belong to Greece, four to Italy, one to Pakistan and two to Cyprus. I advised him to return them”, says the archaeologist The Guardian. ,,I told him: ‘If you follow my advice, you will have no problem and you will also become an example for others to follow. You pack them in a box for each country and go to their embassies. Please use my name – it will protect you. The most honest way is the direct way.

Items Gomperts inherited from his grandmother include two 4th-century ceramic plates decorated with acrobats by southern Italian painters, a 4th-century vase used in ancient Greek wedding ceremonies, and a stone relief fragment representing the disciples of Buddha, carved in the 2nd or 3rd century. .

Gompert’s German-Dutch grandmother, Gisela Schneider-Herrmann, died in 1992, aged 98. She participated in several excavations, notably in Italy and Greece in the 1950s and 1960s, and published scientific articles. “I have no idea how she got these items. She was a fine, decent person. But there were other standards at the time. These items were her obsession, her entire existence.

Some of the artifacts came with receipts, but Tsirogiannis knew that in the 1950s and 1960s archaeologists also suspected links to Greek dealers in illegal antiquities. Gomperts was therefore sure that he wanted to return the objects. “I knocked on the doors of the embassy and said, ‘I have a delivery.’ I said, ‘I want to repatriate these things.’

The countries showed their appreciation by thanking both Gomperts and Tsirogiannis.

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