Italian police have recovered a trove of funerary treasures, believed to have belonged to Etruscan princesses, that were illegally excavated from a vast underground tomb in the Umbria region.
The finds, which included eight urns, two sarcophagi – one containing the remains of a woman aged between 40 and 45 – and beauty accessories, originated from a hypogeum that has been traced to an influential Etruscan family who lived between 300BC and 100BC.
Part of the ancient burial site was discovered in 2015, by a farmer who was ploughing land close to the town of Città della Pieve.
An investigation by Italy’s art-crime squad began earlier this year when detectives came across photos of the relics, which have an estimated value of €8m, that two “tomb raiders” had posted online in their search for buyers abroad.
The suspects were two local businessmen, one of whom had posted a photo of himself alongside the loot.
Police tapped the phones of the alleged thieves and were soon led to an area next to the originally discovered site that had been ransacked. One of the suspects is the owner of the land. The pair have been arrested on charges of theft and trading stolen goods.
Among the relics were four bronze mirrors, a bone comb and a perfume jar that still contained traces of its scent, as well as jugs that were commonly used by Etruscan women during banquets. It was one of the most significant discoveries of Etruscan artefacts made as a result of a police investigation, experts said.
The Etruscan civilisation thrived in Italy, mostly in Tuscany and Umbria, for hundreds of years before the arrival of the Roman Republic, and signs of its presence are scattered across both regions.
In 2022, a collection of bronze statues preserved for thousands of years by mud and boiling water were discovered in a network of baths built by the Etruscans in San Casciano dei Bagni, Tuscany.
The 24 partly submerged statues, which dated back 2,300 years, included a sleeping ephebe lying next to Hygeia, the goddess of health, with a snake wrapped around her arm.
Italian police regularly recover relics stolen by tomb raiders, who for years have made a fortune by digging their way into Italy’s archaeological sites and stealing treasures to sell on to art traffickers around the world.
