Italian authorities are investigating a curator at the Princeton University Museum of Art for allegedly assisting a Princeton alumnus and art dealer by exporting and laundering stolen artifacts.

Police in Albania stopped smugglers who were trying to carry ancient artifacts and more recent objects into Macedonia. They also confiscated money, weapons, and cars. 

Artifacts seized by U.S. Customs Officials last year were returned to Peru today. 

Britain has reportedly rejected a request from the Archaeological Survey of India for the return of artifacts carried away during British colonial rule. “As efforts so far to reclaim stolen treasures have proved futile, UNESCO support is required for launching an international campaign to achieve this end,” said ASI director Gautam Sengupta.  

Christie’s has been asked to withdraw three artifacts linked to convicted art dealer Giacomo Medici from an auction scheduled for next week. “Christie’s knows they are selling objects that appeared in the Medici archive,” said Italian prosecutor Paolo Ferri.  

The Italian farmer who owns the land at the head of the Aqua Traiana is reportedly digging for Roman treasure and allegedly damaging the fragile site. He closed off access to the grotto and spring when the aqueduct was discovered five months ago.  

A shipwreck exposed by winter storms on the North Carolina coast could date to the early years of the seventeenth century. The ship was very large, built without metal fasteners, and probably carried valuable cargo. “It has a very unusual design. We couldn’t believe our eyes when we saw that thing,” said Bradley A. Rodgers of East Carolina University.  

Here’s more on the recent study of oyster shells from Jamestown and the record drought endured by the English colonists in the seventeenth century.  

The foundation of an eighteenth-century almshouse was found near a retaining wall at New York City’s City Hall.  

There’s more on the supposed “brain food” eaten by early humans at National Geographic Daily News.  

A mountaintop-removal mining operation is planned for West Virginia’s Blair Mountain, site of a violent, five-day confrontation in 1921 between coal industry forces and miners who wanted to unionize. Preservationists are trying to keep the as-yet undisturbed site on the National Register of Historic Places. “The activists are all wearing red bandannas around their necks, just like the miners did in 1921,” said Brandon Nida of the University of California, Berkeley.  

Volunteers can assist archaeologists at the Roman fort of Vindolanda, located in northeastern England.  

And will the Roman chariot racetrack in Colchester make the UNESCO World Heritage list?

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Friday, June 4, 2010. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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