18 July 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

Italian Art Police Seize Stolen Roman Statue

Italian police said they recovered a first-century Roman statue that was stolen in 2011 and found in an antique shop in Belgium.

The Carabinieri art team said in a statement on Monday that an Italian businessman who used a Spanish alias had been referred to the prosecutor for further investigation of the allegations he received and then exported the statue abroad.

It was stolen in November 2011 from the Villa Marini Dettina archaeological site on the outskirts of the capital Rome, the statement said.

Two members of the art squad’s archaeological unit were on assignment in Brussels when they took a walk after work in the Sablon neighborhood that is known for its antique shops. They spotted a marble statue in a shop that they suspected was from Italy and confirmed their suspicions when they cross-referenced the work with a database of known stolen antiquities, the statement said.

Carabineri
Carabinieri officers of the art squad’s archaeological unit pose with a headless Roman statue wearing a draped toga in Brussel. (Carabinieri Via AP)

The “Togatus” statue, featuring a headless Roman wearing a draped toga, has a value of 100,000 euros (around TL 970,340)

Italy has been working for years to recover its looted artifacts.

What is toga?

A characteristic garment of ancient Rome was a roughly semicircular fabric wrapped around the shoulders and around the body. It was usually woven from white wool and was worn over a tunic.

Related Articles

Electoral inscriptions just discovered in Pompeii reveal clientelism in ancient Rome

29 September 2023

29 September 2023

Several electoral inscriptions, the ancient equivalent of today’s electoral posters and pamphlets, have appeared on the walls of the room...

Submerged Roman structure of concentric walls discovered on Italy’s western coast

3 June 2024

3 June 2024

Archaeologists have recently uncovered a significant Roman-era structure submerged near the coastline of Campo di Mare on Italy’s western coast....

Evidence of Necromancy during Roman era in the Te’omim Cave, Jerusalem Hills: Oil Lamps, Spearheads, and Skulls

14 July 2023

14 July 2023

Te’omim Cave in the Jerusalem Hills may once have served as a local oracle where people communed with the dead...

Roman camp of 10,000 people discovered in northern Portugal

2 July 2021

2 July 2021

A camp used by 10,000 Roman soldiers sent to conquer northwestern Iberia has been discovered in the Portuguese city of...

Tens of Thousands of Ancient Bronze Coins Dating from the 4th Century Discovered Off Sardinia

4 November 2023

4 November 2023 1

A diver spotted something metallic at the bottom of the sea off the town of Arzachena in the Sassari province...

“Euromos”, The Luckiest Ancient City of Anatolia

18 March 2021

18 March 2021

The city in the region called Caria was known from the 5th century BC as Cyramos (Hyramos). During the reign...

Researchers use AI to read words on ancient Herculaneum scroll burned by Vesuvius

13 October 2023

13 October 2023

Researchers used artificial intelligence to extract the first word from one of the first texts in a charred scroll from...

Metal signature of Roman 19th Legion identified at Teutoburg battle site that shook Rome in AD9

5 December 2022

5 December 2022

Researchers in Germany have identified the metallurgic signature of the Roman 19th Legion in artifacts recovered from the Battle of...

New discoveries show that Claros continued to serve as an oracle center after Christianity

14 September 2022

14 September 2022

Game boards and forked cross motifs dating to the fifth and seventh centuries AD were discovered at the ancient Greek...

Torrential Rain Reveal 2500-Year-old Small Bull Statue

19 March 2021

19 March 2021

After heavy rains near the ancient Olympia site, a bronze bull statue of a bull believed to be at least...

This Month in the “You Will See What You Don’t See” Project

11 February 2021

11 February 2021

Izmir Archeology Museum started to exhibit the unseen artifacts in its warehouses last month in the project that started under...

Ancient Roman Breakwater Discovered Underwater in Misenum: Sculptures and Architecture Reused to Tame the Sea

27 June 2025

27 June 2025

An underwater excavation off the coast of Bacoli, in southern Italy, has uncovered a remarkable Roman-era breakwater built from reused...

New finds in ancient Rome’s Pompeii show ‘conditions of precarity and poor hygiene, in which people of lower status lived during that time

20 August 2023

20 August 2023

Archaeologists have discovered a small bedroom in Civita Giuliana villa near Pompeii that was almost certainly used by slaves, throwing...

A marble slab with an inscription from the 2nd century was discovered during excavations in Bulgaria

18 October 2023

18 October 2023 3

Archaeologists discovered a 1,900-year-old marble slab bearing an ancient Greek inscription in the Roman Baths of Hisarya, a small resort...

Anatolia’s largest olive oil factory unearthed

14 January 2022

14 January 2022

A Roman-era olive oil factory has been unearthed during excavations in the İskenderun district of Hatay. It has been reported...