krater

The most important work to date that Italy has successfully brought back is the Euphronios Krater, one of the finest ancient Greek vases in existence.

Bragg’s office said they included an Apulian krater, or vase, dating from 335 B.C. that was seized in July from a private collection in New York.

In 2008, for example, it returned to Italy the famous Euphronios krater, purchased in 1972 for $1 million.

“From the very first fragment, it was the responsibility of the Met to verify that they are not putting themselves in trouble,” especially after the outcry over the Euphronios krater, said Christos Tsirogiannis, a forensic archaeologist and head of illicit antiquities research at the Ionian University in Greece.

He had run into a bit of rough seas in 1972 when he persuaded the Met to purchase another ancient Greek vase, the Euphronios krater, for $1 million, an astounding sum at the time, from Robert Hecht, a major dealer who the authorities accused several times of antiquities trafficking but who was never convicted.