A stolen marble statue belonging to a family with ties to Mussolini made its way to Manhattan after its theft in the 1980s – and the feds are now working to return it to its rightful owners.
The Torlonia Peplophoros – a statue of a limbless woman wearing a body-length garment called a “peplos” – was swiped in 1983 from the Villa Torlonia in Rome, where the Italian dictator resided from 1925 to 1943, according to a federal-court complaint filed Monday by US Attorney Preet Bharara.
The art was then imported into the US in the late ‘90s by the owner of an unidentified New York art gallery and sold for $81,000 in 2001.
While trying to sell the piece through a New York auction house, the buyer found it was actually stolen – and voluntarily turned it over to feds in late 2015, court papers say.
Bharara filed a civil forfeiture complaint in order to return the statue back to Rome.
It had been displayed with other artworks at the villa, which was purchased in 1797 by famous Vatican banker Giovanni Torlonia and later restored by Rome officials. The villa is now open to the public.
The Torlonia Peplophoros was one of 15 pieces that were stolen in a “brazen theft” in November 1983, Bharara said.
“We are proud to have recovered it so it can finally be returned to its rightful owners,” he said in a statement. “We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to recover and return stolen treasures no matter how long they have been missing.”