Rome, New York. Edoardo Almagià is unknown to the general public but not to the directors of the largest American museums and especially not to the Manhattan district attorney. The latter has just issued an international arrest warrant against this Italian antiques dealer born in New York seventy-three years ago. In 2006 the man took refuge in Rome to flee the American justice system which was increasing investigations into the man it considered to be a trafficker in stolen antiquities. In 2021, 200 archaeological pieces estimated at $10 million were returned to Italy by a New York prosecutor who announced that 150 had passed into the hands of Edoardo Almagià. His services have been tracking him for decades, in collaboration with the Comando Carabinieri per la Tutela del Patrimonio Culturale (TPC, Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage), a unit of the Italian gendarmerie responsible for repressing the trafficking of works of art. ‘art. They are convinced of close links between the one we call in the community “the American” and the tombarolithese Etruscan tomb robbers, to acquire precious antiquities, then resold to wealthy clients or to prestigious museums including that of Cleveland and the Getty.
Denounced by an ex-partner
A graduate in the history of ancient art at Princeton University (New Jersey), Edoardo Almagià has been visiting the Etruscan sites of Tarquinia and Cerveteri since the 1980s, participating in excavation campaigns which are not all legal according to investigators. But they never managed to irrefutably prove his guilt. They recognize in him a certain verve, great culture and undeniable charm. But the noose is tightening around Edoardo Almagià, whose name appears in almost all the scandals of the last three decades linked to the illicit trafficking of archaeological goods. He was forced to take refuge in Italy where he hoped to be beyond the reach of American justice. This was without counting the revenge of one of his ex-partners, according to the daily Tea New York Times. During a search of her New York apartment, she allegedly indicated the presence of a green register containing detailed notes on some 1,700 Etruscan, Roman and Greek objects, purchased from various tombaroli known to be worth approximately $1 million. The notes also mentioned information about their buyers. Questioned by the daily La RepubblicaEdoardo Almagià maintains his innocence, claiming to have only ever sold objects of derisory value and defending total freedom in the antiques trade. He called the antiquities repatriation movement a “publicity stunt” and criticized Italian authorities for spending public money on such initiatives instead of taking care of the country’s infrastructure.
