Recovered Antiquities Go on Display in Italy

ROME—Greek, Etruscan, and Roman antiquities will go on display Friday in an exhibition of illegally trafficked ancient masterpieces that Italy has recovered, the AP reports.

The Quirinale presidential palace will show 68 pieces of pottery, sculpture, and painting handed over by museums and collections around the world through May. The exhibit is the result of Rome's increased pressure to bring back artifacts that Italian authorities say were dug up illegally or stolen and smuggled out of their country.

Most of the treasures were returned by U.S. museums, with more than half of the pieces coming from the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, which signed a deal with Italy in September with after more than a year of negotiations. Italian officials have said they are negotiating for more pieces from the U.S., Europe, and Asia.

Under the deals with the museums, Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli said, Italy will give long-term loans of equally significant treasures.