A mosaic panel on travertine slabs, depicting an erotic theme from the Roman era, was returned to the archaeological park of Pompeii on Tuesday, after being stolen by a Nazi German captain during World War II. The artwork was repatriated from Germany through diplomatic channels after having been returned from the heirs of the last owner, a deceased German citizen. The owner had received the mosaic as a gift from a Wehrmacht captain, assigned to the military supply chain in Italy during the war, reports the AP. The mosaic—dating between mid- to last century BC and the first century—is considered a work of "extraordinary cultural interest," experts said.
"It is the moment when the theme of domestic love becomes an artistic subject," said Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii and co-author of an essay dedicated to the returned work. "While the Hellenistic period, from the fourth to the first century BC, exulted the passion of mythological and heroic figures, now we see a new theme." The heirs of the mosaic's last owner in Germany contacted the Carabinieri unit in Rome that's dedicated to protecting cultural heritage, asking for information on how to return the mosaic to the Italian state.
"Today's return is like healing an open wound," Zuchtriegel said, adding that the mosaic allows us to reconstruct the story of that period, the first century AD, before Pompeii was destroyed by the Vesuvius eruption in AD 79. The park's director also highlighted how the return by the heirs of its owner signals an important change in "mentality," as "the sense of possession (of stolen art) becomes a heavy burden." "We see that often in the many letters we receive from people who may have stolen just a stone, to bring home a piece of Pompeii," Zuchtriegel said. He recalled the so-called "Pompeii curse," which according to a popular superstition hits whoever steals artifacts in Pompeii.
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