Two allegedly looted vases on sale at Frieze Masters art fair

Allegedly, two vases which were once in possession of convicted art-dealer Gianfranco Becchina went on sale at this year’s Frieze Masters art fair in Regent’s Park, London. They were presented on Basel-based dealer Jean-David Cahn’s stand labelled as “price upon request” but with a price point of £100,000 or more apiece.

In January 2015, a record haul of rare antiquities illegally looted from Italy and discovered during raids of the Swiss warehouses of an accused Sicilian art dealer was revealed. Police estimated the value of the of the 5,361 vases, bronze statues and frescoes at about £38 million and the two vases are suspected to have been a part of this collection. The items were found during an investigation into art dealer Gianfranco Becchina, who was accused by prosecutors of being part of an antiquities trafficking network that involved “tombaroli” tomb raiders in Italy and across the globe. He was later convicted.

Nothing in the vases’ accompanying documentation mentioned Gianfranco’s name, however, they were identified by Cambridge-based forensic archaeologist Christos Tsirogiannis after he was sent photos of the antiques by a former student. The illegality of the vases has not yet been conclusively proved but there is surmounting evidence that at least one of the vases was looted in Athens and then trafficked to Gianfranco in the 1970s.