Goddess of Death by Roy Lewis Read Free Book Online Page B

Alienor Donati’s report with a printed document which comprised a list of looted artefacts. A copy was handed to Arnold to inspect. It detailed a list of items which were identified by way of transactions, and Arnold wasable to follow the movement of individual items across Europe. ‘Items seven to fifteen,’ explained the heavily built American, ‘actually came to light when a building company were clearing a road. The road collapsed … the reason being that
tombaroli
had built a tunnel under it to get to a house on one side of the street, to a
stipe
– a room attached to a temple – located opposite. The objects had been smuggled out by way of the tunnel, but, of course, once the road collapsed the very distinctive antiquities have been on our watch list ever since. This was the evidence which I was able to present to the Metropolitan Museum in New York.’ He raised his head, stared grimly at Carmela. ‘Discussions for return of the artefacts are ongoing.’
    Arnold could guess what he meant. In his previous work with Carmela, and discussions he had had from time to time with his deputy director Karl Spedding, he was aware that many museum directors were almost in a state of denial. They were prepared to accept items from private collections as legitimate acquisitions: it could take years of pressure before museums reluctantly agreed that items, bought, they claimed, in good faith, were in fact indisputably looted material.
    The man identified as Joachim Schmidt raised his head: he had been concentrating, as Arnold now realized, on the construction of a chart set out in a hierarchical manner, identifying the trails by which identified artefacts had been moved from their original, looted locations, through Italy, Germany, Switzerland and France. His English was precise, his tone measured as though he was speaking slowly in order that Arnold should understand clearly. Arnold realized they had all been reporting in English for his benefit. ‘The group will note,’ Schmidt intoned, ‘that names are now possible to add to the links: in Basel we have the Greek dealer Goutaki; there is a direct link between him and the person known only as ‘Tanya’ in Athens; the
cordata
then links to members in Paris where we have the international auction house noted, and other namessuch as Ortiz in Zurich, Sandrini in Rome, Bruno, Bartowski, Luzzi … and the chart shows also the links in Orvieto, Naples, Lugano, Buenos Aires….’
    Arnold glanced towards Colonel Messi. He did not seem to be taking a great deal of interest in the proceedings and it was almost as though he had fallen asleep, his head on his chest, eyes closed. Pink scalp gleamed through his thinning, swept-back grey hair.
    Arnold was slightly puzzled. When he had first met Carmela, she had been working for the Carabinieri Art Squad – in fact part of the army rather than the Italian police – and they had a widespread system of surveillance, including wiretapping. The squad had been set up in 1969, because of the serious nature of the organized looting of Italian artefacts. There had been an upsurge in looting and black market trading as a result of the post-war rise in prosperity in the West, and after the UNESCO convention of 1970 a computerized database had been established in 1980. But the art squad had not confined its activities to Italy: it had established links and helped train investigative art squads in Palestine, Hungary and Iran. But, as he listened to the discussion in the room, Arnold realized that things had moved on even since he had met, and worked with Carmela, in the matter of the
calyx krater
. He continued to listen quietly as the members discussed the deep background activities involving auction houses, dealers, museums, private collectors in Europe, American and Asia. The hunt for organizers of the illicit antiquities network had now become an internationally supported system. And it would seem that this group was deeply involved in the