Morgantina Silver, Formerly Known As The Hellenistic Silver Hoard

Last month at the Met I found the Hellenistic Silver Hoard in the Hellenistic Treasury room in the Greek and Roman Galleries. I was thrilled to see such a beautifully preserved collection of fine silver pieces from Sicily. According to the Met, the case “represents some of the finest Hellenistic silver known from Magna Grecia.” As I admired the pieces and began reading the Met’s description, I was happy to see such glowing remarks attached to Sicily and its ancient art. However, as I continued to read I realized that the Met was not giving whole-hearted credit to Sicily for the silver pieces, and ultimately found out that due to an apparent process of deliberation between Italy and the Met, the museum would be returning the entire silver collection to Morgantina, in eastern Sicily, in January of 2010.

Morgantina Silver. Greek, S. Italian/Sicilian, 3rd c. BCE. (L.2006.12.1-16)

Questions abounded: What is Morgantina? Why is the Met returning its purchases? Why any deliberation or controversy?

After some light investigation of my own, I began to see the story behind the Morgatina Silver. The first story I found detailing the Silver, in the context of controversy, was Jeffrey Fleishman’s article for The Philadelphia Inquirer, “Italy Crusades for Return of Plundered Antiquities.” Fleishman tells the story of Malcolm Bell III, an archaeologist at the University of Virginia and lead supervisor in Morgantina, who saw the silver collection by chance at the Met a few years after acquisition in the early eighties, and decided to determine their source.

The Met ignored or delayed Bell’s requests to examine the Silver and he continued to face opposition until 1996, when the Italian government finally secured the testimony of a clandestine excavator who claimed to be involved in the looting of the Morgantina Silver (Bohlen, 2). With some form of proof of a controversial origin and the Met’s permission, Bell was able to examine the silver and decipher the Greek inscription, from 211 BCE, as a message of ownership – a family name: Eupolemos (Bohlen, 2). The Silver, According to Bell, was “most likely hidden beneath the floor of a house by a Greek man named Eupolemos, who was trying to protect his wealth from invading Roman armies” (Fleishman, A01).

Bell determined that the Silver came in fact from Morgantina, and not some other area of eastern Sicily, based on the Met’s understanding that the collection was separated into two smaller collections and on the family name, which is known to have come from Morgantina during the time of the Punic Wars (Bohlen, 2). The name is inscribed on a real estate deed, executed in the third century B.C., for a piece of land that happens to be near the spot where Bell and his team determined that the silver was looted (Singleton, 1). A key element of Bell’s confirmation of Morgantina as the Silver’s source was the discovery of an ancient coin, minted between 214 and 212 BCE, in one of the excavated holes (Singleton, 1). Bell’s determination of source is further supported by the figures and patterns, including the very interesting Scylla figure on one of the silver boxes, on the Silver which have been also been found in the Morgantina area. Still, the evidence presented by Bell does not convince the Met of the Silver’s origin; and this is where the research gets interesting.

Bell also found, in one of the excavated holes at Morgantina, a coin dating to 1978 – proof that the site had indeed been looted, and, therefore, the art illegally ripped from is historical and cultural context (Fleishman, A01). Italy has realized the significance of its treasures, and the damage done by looting, since 1939 when the Italian government implemented a law forbidding the illegal excavation and trafficking of antiquities (Fleishman, A01). In 1983, the U.S. ratified the UNESCO Cultural Property Convention that “forbids the sale and trafficking of antiquities and art” (Fleishman, A01). Despite these measures, art is still stolen, trafficked, and purchased – sometimes or often by the great museums of the world, including the Met.

Confirming the silver’s origin as Morgantina puts the Met in an awkward situation. The full transfer of credit to Morgantina, Sicily, rather than the Italian State (which is where credit rests now), means that:

Sometime after 1978 tombaroli (grave robbers) illegally dug up a 15 piece collection of silver in Morgantina, found in two locations, with the aid of metal detectors (Fleishman, A01).

The collection was transferred to Nabil Asfar, a Lebanese business man and art dealer (Bohlen, 3). [The Asfars explained to the Met's intermediary that the silver had been "in his family for years" (Bohlen, 3).]

Robert E. Hecht, Jr. of Paris and Switzerland acquired the collection from Asfar for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC for $2.7 million (Fleishman, A01).

Such a chain of events is surely unacceptable for the Met and the museum appears to be content to return the now-controversial prized collection to Sicily via Rome and avoid further documentation of the Silver’s origins.

The Morgantina Silver is approaching proper credit, and appreciation, but also highlights the serious issue of looting in Italy. Mario Bondioli-Osio states that “The theft of art and antiquities from Italy is like ripping a page out of our history,” (Fleishman, A01), and I could not agree more. The illegal excavation of art does not respect the surrounding of precious art and in fact destroys what could lead qualified people to a better understanding of local and world history. I believe firmly that the damage done is especially significant in Sicily due to the consistent convergence of world cultures at every point throughout history.

The looting and consequential high-profile purchase of the Morgantina Silver is evidence of the prevalence and high degree of infiltration of clandestine excavators in the high art world. While a $2.7 million purchase can certainly be viewed as encouragement of this illegal and destructive process, it is also bringing the tragedy of lost culture through stolen art to light. In my opinion, the Met should be even more forth coming with the details of the Morgantina Silver, in an effort to further legitimize the art and antiquities trade and to ultimately discourage the blind sale and purchase of such important collections as the Silver.

The discovery and return of the Morgantina Silver is a great victory story for Sicily and stands as an example of how much more of Sicily there is to be found, and saved.

Works Cited

Bohlen, Celestine. The New York Times, “Archaeologist Vindicated in Hunch on Antique Silver Hoard.” Friday, February 2, 2006.

Fleishman, Jeffrey. The Philadelphia Inquirer, “Italy Crusades for Return of Plundered Antiquities.” Page A01. August 8, 2000.

Singleton, Maura. The University of Virginia Magazine, Plunder: The Theft of the Morgantina Silver.” Spring, 2006.