The Medici Conspiracy: The Illicit Journey of Looted Antiquities-- From Italy's Tomb Raiders to the World's Greatest Museums [Paperback]

Peter Watson (Author), Cecilia Todeschini (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 12, 2007

The story begins, as stories do in all good thrillers, with a botched robbery and a police chase. Eight Apuleian vases of the fourth century B.C. are discovered in the swimming pool of a German-based art smuggler. More valuable than the recovery of the vases, however, is the discovery of the smuggler's card index detailing his deals and dealers. It reveals the existence of a web of tombaroli—tomb raiders— who steal classical artifacts, and a network of dealers and smugglers who spirit them out of Italy and into the hands of wealthy collectors and museums. Peter Watson, a former investigative journalist for the London Sunday Times and author of two previous exposés of art world scandals, names the key figures in this network that has depleted Europe's classical artifacts. Among the loot are the irreplaceable and highly collectable vases of Euphronius, the equivalent in their field of the sculpture of Bernini or the painting of Michelangelo. The narrative leads to the doors of some major institutions: Sothebys, the Getty Museum in L.A., the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York among them. Filled with great characters and human drama, The Medici Conspiracy authoritatively exposes another shameful round in one of the oldest games in the world: theft, smuggling and duplicitous dealing, all in the name of art.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In light of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's recent decision to return a rare—and by the Italian government's contention, stolen—vase painted by the Greek master Euphronios, Watson and Todeschini's colorful account of Giacomo Medici, an antiquities dealer found guilty of looting last year, and his illegal business dealings, is wonderfully prescient. Making sense of a lengthy catalogue of legal, artistic and forensic documentation, the authors meticulously map out Medici's underground network of middlemen and tombaroli, or tomb robbers, and link them to corrupt dealers such as Robin Symes as well as to established cultural institutions including Sotheby's, the John Paul Getty Museum and the Met—asserting that Medici supplied most, if not all, of the major collections of classical antiquities that have been established since WWII. Though Watson (Sotheby's: The Inside Story) and Todeschini often become overly indignant when decrying their story's villains and frequently bog down the narrative with long-winded dialogue and paper trail excerpts, they are at their best when chronicling the international adventures of various investigators, such as the Carabinieri Art Squad's raids on various Italian criminals to recover lost loot. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

The sense of wonder experienced when contemplating the beauty and miraculous survival of an ancient Greek vase will be profoundly altered by this vigorous expose of criminal antiquities dealing. Investigative reporter and art crime specialist Watson and researcher Todeschini chronicle the astonishing exploits of Giacomo Medici, a nefarious Italian antiquities dealer and mastermind, as they accompany Colonel Roberto Conforti, head of the Carabinieri Art Squad, over the course of a complicated eight-year investigation. Writing with the zest and seduction of the finest crime novelists, Watson and Todeschini meticulously explicate every phase of Conforti's operation as he and his dedicated agents gradually unveil a well-organized circle of tomb raiders, smugglers, dealers, and, most shockingly, their scandalously complicit high-profile customers, including renowned collectors, premier auction houses, and world-class institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The authors offer an invaluable primer in antiquities, describe the looting of thousands of ancient tombs and the loss of irreplaceable archaeological sites, skewer disreputable curators, and decry the fate of "some of the finest objects ever produced by humankind" in a dramatic, fascinating, and rightfully indignant report on outrageous avarice and crimes against civilization. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: PublicAffairs (June 12, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1586484389
• ISBN-13: 978-1586484385
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #811,117 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exciting, Definitive Review of the Looting of Italy's Archaeological Treasures, July 21, 2006

By 

John Kwok (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Medici Conspiracy: The Illicit Journey of Looted Antiquities--From Italy's Tomb Raiders to the World's Greatest Museums (Hardcover)

"The Medici Conspiracy: The Illicit Journey of Looted Antiquities From Italy's Tomb Raiders to the World's Greatest Museums" reads like a contemporary page-turning crime thriller, but recounts a saga that is all too true, revealing a thirty-year old conspiracy which looted many of Italy's most important archaeological sites merely to satisfy the insatiable appetites of greedy American and European collectors and museum curators whose interest was solely in getting the best pieces possible for their collections, whatever the cost to their personal integrity and academic reputations. Peter Watson, Research Associate, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge, and Cecilia Todeschini, a researcher and translator, have written a passionate, provocate look at the looting of archaeological sites, which should be regarded as the definitive examination of this sordid issue. Their insightful work of nonfiction covers the successful exploits of the Italian Carabineri Art Squad investigation code-named "Operation Geryon" that has led to the successful prosecution of Italian antiquities "dealer" (a more apt description would be professional thief) Giacomo Medici, and the ongoing trials of his American colleague Robert Hecht, and disgraced former Getty Museum curator Marion True (Both of them have received ample publicity in The New York Times, Washington Post, and elsewhere.). The authors also - I believe - note correctly the scandalous behavior of many major European and American museums in acquiring antiquities of dubious or unknown provenance (This means that these objects were most likely excavated illegally by the Tombaroli (Tomb Robbers) on behalf of Hecht, Medici and others of their ilk.), of which two of the worst offenders include New York City's venerable Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Getty Museum near Los Angeles (It is no exaggeration to surmise that the Getty Museum's antiquities collection is based almost entirely on loot; a point which the authors return to frequently.). They also strongly condemn the actions of major auction houses like Christie's, Bonham's, and especially Sotheby's, for aiding and abetting the lucrative illicit trade in stolen antiquities.

"The Medici Conspiracy" also tells the true story of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's acquisition of the Euphronios krater (two-handled Classical Greek vase) - a story which has yet to be told fully by The New York Times - which both opens and closes this book. To the authors' everlasting credit, they recount the courageous actions of a young Metropolitan Museum of Art curator of Ancient Near East Art, Oscar W. Muscarella, who strongly objected to the museum's purchase of this vase from dealer Robert Hecht, recognizing that this important object had been excavated illegally from an Etruscan tomb in central Italy. For displaying such courage, Muscarella was fired three times (Only the third time was related directly to the Metropolitan Museum's acquisition of the Euphronios krater; one of the other instances was due to Muscarella's campaigning for equal pay to be granted to the museum's female employees.) by Thomas Hoving, the Metropolitan's director, and sued the museum successfully, before he was finally reinstated as a tenured associate curator in 1977 (A year later, Muscarella was given the unique position of Senior Research Fellow, a title which he holds still at the museum.). More than thirty years after Muscarella strongly voiced his objections, he finally seems to have been vindicated, with the ongoing trial of Robert Hecht, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art's commitment to return the vase to Italy sometime in the next year or two (A distinguished alumnus of our high school, Muscarella is widely well regarded for his excellent scholarship on the archaeology of Anatolia (Western Turkey) in the First Millenium, B. C., was a visiting professor at Brown University, and has lectured often at Brown and elsewhere around the globe.).

I have a unique perspective on this issue given a longstanding interest in the relationship between commercial fossil collectors and professional paleontologists. You could substitute "fossil" for "antiquities" and obtain a sordid view of commercial fossil collecting that isn't too far removed from the authors' depiction of the "Medici Conspiracy" (But thankfully, there is better cooperation between some commercial fossil collectors and professional paleontologists; one notable example is the excellent relationship which the Black Hills Institute for Geological Research - the commercial collecting firm that excavated "Sue", the female Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton owned by McDonald's and displayed at Chicago's Field Museum - has fostered with distinguished invertebrate paleontologists from the United States Geological Survey and the American Museum of Natural History.).

I strongly commend Public Affairs for recognizing the importance of "The Medici Conspiracy" by publishing this definitive tome. It is indeed definitive since the illicit global trading of antiquities is regrettably a cultural crime against humanity; it is the most comprehensive examination I have come across on this illicit trade. Anyone who is interested in art, antiquities, museum collections, and private collections should definitely buy this book soon. I promise, you won't be disappointed.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The story behind the latest revelations, May 11, 2006

By 

John E. Drury "jedrury" (Washington, DC United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Medici Conspiracy: The Illicit Journey of Looted Antiquities--From Italy's Tomb Raiders to the World's Greatest Museums (Hardcover)

These two authors are passionate, eloquent and fully knowledgeable in convincingly telling the full story about the looting of the antiquities of Italy and elsewhere and in identifying the culprits. Next time at the Getty or the Met gander at those lovely antiquities because the bet is they were "looted" and without legitimate provenance. This book carefully and thoroughly uncovers the sordid truth.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a gripping crime story of epic proportions, May 30, 2006

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Medici Conspiracy: The Illicit Journey of Looted Antiquities--From Italy's Tomb Raiders to the World's Greatest Museums (Hardcover)

Ever wonder where all the vases and statues in museums and antiquities collections come from? No? Join the club! As Peter Watson and Cecilia Todeschini demonstrate in meticulous detail, art dealers, auction houses and museum curators are also less than obsessed with the question, and their incuriosity has allowed a flourishing trade in vandalism, grave-robbing and trafficking.

Watson and Todeschini illustrate this appalling practice through the case of Giacomo Medici (no known relation to Lorenzo of the Italian Renaissance), whose systematic pillaging of Greek and Italian antiquities has devastated the field of archeology and robbed these countries of their heritage. Let's say an ancient Greek vase comes on the market. This vase is supposed to have a provenance, a documented history of legal ownership and an explanation of how it came to be excavated. Both buyers and sellers are supposed to ensure that this provenance is accurate. How would such an item come to lack a provenance? It could be stolen from a museum or established collection, it could be a fake, or it simply could have been illegally dug out of the ground, never reported, and the paperwork manipulated to get it out of the country.

Giacomo Medici used all these tactics and more, with the willing complicity of collaborators ranging from rustic tomb-robbers (tombaroli, as they're called) to the swankiest auction houses and museums all over the world, including Sotheby's, the J. Paul Getty Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

It took the cooperation of police departments all over the world and an extremely complex investigation lasting over a decade to stop Giacomo Medici, whose bizarre habit of having himself photographed in front of his most successful antiquities was a key element in the case against him. The investigation may have been complicated but the motives of those involved were pretty simple. Ambition on the part of museum curators played a part, with everyone scrapping to get the most prestigious collections, but mainly this story is about greed.

The irony is that so many players in this story could be so consumed by greed and so ignorant of value. The tombaroli found a buried room in Pompeii that had been untouched since Vesuvius erupted, and they chopped up the wall frescos to transport them more easily abroad and ruined the rest. A unique, unrepeatable archeological find, and it's treated like a stolen Dodge in a chop-shop.

There are no car chases or fiery explosions, but THE MEDICI CONSPIRACY is a gripping crime story of epic proportions.

--- Reviewed by Colleen Quinn ([e-mail])