From Apulia to Virginia: An Apulian Gnathia Askos at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Tsirogiannis, C. (2013), ‘From Apulia to Virginia: An Apulian Gnathia Askos at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts’, The Journal of Art Crime 10: 81-86.

An Apulian Gnathia askos with a spout formed in the shape of a woman’s head appears in 2 Polaroid images  from the confiscated archive of the convicted antiquities dealer Giacomo Medici. The vase is depicted uncleaned, standing on a large, creased white sheet of paper, reassembled from various fragments, missing the entire left side of its rim and various chips of clay from its neck and shoulder. In 1980 this askos was acquired by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond. The article reconstructs the recent collecting history of this antiquity, presents the circumstances of its acquisition by the museum and underlines VMFA’s obligation to contact the Italian authorities about the case, according to the “Guidelines on the Acquisition of Archaeological Material and Ancient Art” published by the Association of Art Museum Directors.