Seventy-four people are under investigation by the Catania Prosecutor’s Office as part of an investigation into trafficking in archaeological goods which also reaches abroad. For 55 of them, the deputy prosecutor Fabio Scavone and the deputy Giovanni Gullo have made a request for the issuance of a precautionary measure: 12 in prison, 35 under house arrest and eight obligations to report to the judicial police. The investigating judge Simona Ragazzi has scheduled the preliminary interrogations which will be held from November 25th to 29th. According to the Prosecutor’s Office, which also accuses some of criminal association in the commission of crimes against heritage and culture, the suspects are part, with different roles, of the entire chain of trafficking in archaeological goods.
There are over 20 archaeological sites in Sicily and one in Calabria, in Roccelletta di Borgia, in the province of Catanzaro, violated by grave robbers who placed the archaeological goods found or stolen from enthusiasts via a ‘supply chain’ at the center of the investigation by the Catania Prosecutor’s Office with 74 suspects.
According to the deputy prosecutor Fabio Scavone and the deputy Giovanni Gullo, there were two criminal associations aimed at «committing a plurality of crimes relating to cultural heritage and against heritage» which carried out «archaeological excavations without any concession» to «take possession of cultural assets». Some of the stolen artefacts, such as 46 precious coins dating back to between the end of the 5th and 3rd centuries BC, would have been sold in 2021 to a German auction house in Munich, and would have been sold for a total of over 42 thousand euros. Part of these stolen archaeological assets would have been seized by the German judiciary, in execution of a European judicial order issued by the Catania Prosecutor’s Office.
Another similar case was recorded in London, with the auction sale of 39 Sicilian coins from the Greek era, procured by one of the suspects, accused of receiving stolen goods, between June 2021 and March 2022, apparently sold for over 150 thousand pounds. And, according to the prosecution, they would not have been the only auction sales in London of archaeological goods stolen from Sicily. In a sale made on the island, some pieces were sold for 20 thousand euros, thanks to the falsification of certificates of origin.
Overall, in the provision requesting precautionary measures for 54 suspects, the Prosecutor’s Office disputes 292 episodes. The investigation is based on investigations by the Carabinieri of the Archaeological Heritage Protection unit who collected the results of their investigations in a report of over 1,700 pages.