The Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Property by Laurie Rush Luisa Benedettini Millington

Author:Laurie Rush, Luisa Benedettini Millington [Laurie Rush, Luisa Benedettini Millington]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Europe, Italy, Social Science, Archaeology, True Crime, General
ISBN: 9781783270569
Google: oJq7CgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Published: 2015-01-15T02:53:54+00:00

SASSARI

The Sardinian TPC nucleus was founded in 2001 and is located in Sassari at the Polo Museale di Sassari, a major regional museum that includes the Archaeological Museum of Sardinia. It is difficult to know when the first humans might have come to Sardinia, but there is no doubt that the island has been permanently occupied for at least 6000 years. The island features megalithic tombs, standing stone monuments, rock shelters, camps dating to the Roman legions, coastal settlements left behind by Phoenicians and Carthaginians, medieval neighbourhoods and mighty cone-shaped rock fortresses called nuraghi. There are over 7000 nuraghi, some dating as far back as 1800 BC, strategically located as lookouts and defensible positions throughout the island.

Owing to isolation and the island’s rugged geography, Sardinians of the past belonged to unique local tribal populations such as the Ilienes, Balares and Corsi, who are known today only by the ancient settlements and structures that they left behind in the form of archaeological sites. However, that same rugged geography and isolation, combined with decreasing populations in some areas, makes protection of those same sites more difficult. In 2001, Francesca Manconi Valsecchi, Archaeological Superintendent for the Provinces of Sassari and Nuoro, described these challenges to an international conference on illicit trafficking sponsored by the Carabinieri TPC and led by General Conforti (Valsecchi 2002). She also pointed out the importance of heritage preservation as an investment in the island’s future. The Sardinians, like the Basques, may represent remnants of a population that lived in Europe before the Indo-Europeans, so a greater understanding of the ancient peoples of Sardinia is important for greater understanding of the ancient world, not to mention the origins of all European populations.

The unique and special nature of artefacts found within Sardinian archaeological sites can unfortunately increase their value on the collector’s market. Speaking at an event that formed part of the 2012 Culture Week celebrations on the island, the commander of the Carabinieri TPC unit at Sassari, Captain Paolo Montorsi, quoted a black market price of €20,000 per centimetre for Sardinian bronzes (Ambu 2012). These items were stolen from archaeological sites with the greatest incidence of looting in the province of Nuoro, a place described as the Athens of Sardinia. The commander discussed the black market for Sardinian artefacts, with destinations including Germany, the US and Japan, and also described the process of smuggling looted objects to Switzerland, where they can ‘lie low’ and where criminal dealers fabricate false provenances for them.

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